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Thirty years after Germany came backtogether, the former East has emergedas the stronghold of once-marginalizedfar-right extremists. PAGE 12

INTERNATIONAL 12-16

Reunification’s Dark SideThe myth of the Amazon as “a landwithout men for men without land” hasravaged a region and its people. ButBrazil’s president sees wasted space.

SPECIAL SECTION

Captain Chain Saw’s Delusion Maureen Dowd PAGE 5

SUNDAY REVIEW

The United States economy isfacing a tidal wave of long-termunemployment as millions of peo-ple who lost jobs early in the pan-demic remain out of work sixmonths later and job losses in-creasingly turn permanent.

The Labor Department said onFriday that 2.4 million people hadbeen out of work for 27 weeks ormore, the threshold it uses to de-fine long-term joblessness. Aneven bigger surge is on the way:Nearly five million people are ap-proaching long-term joblessnessover the next two months. Thesame report showed that even astemporary layoffs were on the de-cline, permanent job losses wererising sharply.

Those two problems — risinglong-term unemployment andpermanent job losses — are sepa-rate but intertwined and, together,could foreshadow a period of pro-longed economic damage and fi-nancial pain for American fam-ilies.

Companies that are limpingalong below capacity this far intothe crisis may be increasingly un-likely to ever recall their employ-ees. History also suggests thelonger that people are out of work,the harder it is for them to get

back into a job.To be sure, the labor market has

bounced back more quickly thanmost forecasters expected in thespring. The unemployment ratedropped to 7.9 percent in Septem-ber from 14.7 percent in April. Butprogress has slowed, and thereare signs of more lasting damage.Through September, the economyhad regained only about half of the22 million jobs it lost between Feb-ruary and April.

High-interaction businesseslike restaurants, theaters, casi-nos, conferences and cruises are

struggling to fully reopen as thecoronavirus continues to spread,leaving many workers out of jobs.

Disney announced this pastweek that it would lay off 28,000U.S. employees as its theme parksstruggle. Layoff notices filed withstate authorities show that hospi-tality and service companiesacross the country, from P.F.Chang’s restaurant branches toGap stores, are making thousandsof long-term staff reductions. Air-port bookstores in Pennsylvania

Continued on Page 19

For Many Jobless, ‘Short-Term’ No Longer FitsThis article is by Jeanna Smialek,

Ben Casselman and Gillian Fried-man.

ELIZABETH FRANTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

MacKenzie Nicholson of Nottingham, N.H., lost her job with theAmerican Cancer Society in June as the pandemic hurt funding.

GHENT, Belgium — Sanda Diasaw a fraternity as a doorway intoa different life. The son of an immi-grant factory worker, he was anambitious 20-year-old Black stu-dent at one of Belgium’s mostprestigious universities. The fra-ternity, Reuzegom, was home tothe scions of Antwerp’s whiteelites.

Access to that rarefied world, hedecided, was worth enduring thefraternity’s notoriously vicioushazing ritual.

He did not survive it.After being forced alongside

two other pledges to drink alcoholexcessively, chug fish oil until hevomited, swallow live goldfish andstand outside in an ice-filledtrench, Mr. Dia died in December2018 of multiple organ failure. Hisdeath was seen as a tragic acci-dent, an example of hazing gonewrong.

In recent weeks, however, aneven uglier story has emerged.Fraternity members had used aracial slur as they ordered Mr. Diato clean up after a party. A photosurfaced purporting to show a fra-ternity member wearing Ku KluxKlan robes. A fraternity speechreferenced “our good German

friend, Hitler.” A video showedthem singing a racist song.

And deleted WhatsApp mes-sages, recovered by the police,show fraternity members — thesons of judges, business leadersand politicians — scrambling tocover their tracks.

“This was not an accident,” saidMr. Dia’s brother, Seydou De Vel.

The details, uncovered recentlyin a string of local news stories,have forced the nation’s Dutch-speaking region, Flanders, to con-

Hazing Death of Black StudentBares Racism’s Rise in Belgium

By MATT APUZZOand STEVEN ERLANGER

Sanda Dia in a family photo.He joined an almost entirelywhite fraternity in Antwerp.

Continued on Page 13

PHOENIX — Soon after hewoke up on Friday morning, CruzZepeda, a 54-year-old Trump sup-porter, received a text from a life-long friend eager to share a senti-ment he found on Twitter: “Lookslike RBG successfully argued herfirst hearing with the Lord.”

Still in a bit of shock, Mr. Zepedafelt his anger rise. The friendsonce shared similar political be-liefs, but disagreed more oftenthan not over the past 15 years.

“This is not funny,” he shotback. “This is real time, real lifeand really happening.”

The pandemic could have been

a great unifier — a widespreadand life-altering tragedy that in-spired a notion of shared nationalpurpose, as at other moments ofcrisis in the country’s past. Andperhaps in another moment, inanother place, a president fallingill would have seen citizens keep-ing vigil regardless of political af-filiation. But the coronavirus,which has sickened more thanseven million Americans, includ-ing the president, the first lady

and a growing number of people inhis inner circle, has deepened di-visions rather than united thecountry.

Now, a month before ElectionDay and with the president in thehospital, interviews with voters insome of the most contested battle-ground states make clear that thedivisions that the president him-self has stoked in the country arebeing reflected back at him, withhis supporters defiantly insistinghe will hold rallies again beforeNov. 3 and Democrats, if not wish-ing him a turn for the worse, cer-tainly not shedding any tears.

A day before the president dis-closed his illness, Mr. Zepeda, a

Nation Stays Divided, Even Over Trump’s IllnessBy JENNIFER MEDINA

and TRIP GABRIEL

Dr. Sean P. Conley briefing reporters on President Trump’s health at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday.ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Some Extend Sympathy,Others Cite Karma

Continued on Page 8

WASHINGTON — As Americalocked down this spring duringthe worst pandemic in a century,inside the Trump White Housethere was the usual defiance.

The tight quarters of the WestWing were packed and busy. Al-most no one wore masks. The rareofficials who did, like MatthewPottinger, the deputy national se-curity adviser, were ridiculed bycolleagues as alarmist.

President Trump at times toldstaff wearing masks in meetingsto “get that thing off,” an adminis-tration official said. Everyoneknew that Mr. Trump viewedmasks as a sign of weakness, offi-cials said, and that his messagewas clear. “You were looked downupon when you would walk bywith a mask,” said Olivia Troye, atop aide on the coronavirus taskforce who resigned in August andhas endorsed former Vice Presi-dent Joseph R. Biden Jr.

In public, some of the presi-dent’s favorite targets were mask-wearing White House correspon-dents. “Would you take it off, I canhardly hear you,” Mr. Trump toldJeff Mason of Reuters in May, thenmocked Mr. Mason for wanting“to be politically correct” when herefused.

This past week, a White Houselong in denial confronted realityafter Mr. Trump and the first ladyboth tested positive for the virus,along with Hope Hicks, a topWhite House aide, and BillStepien, the Trump campaignmanager, among others. The out-come appeared shocking but alsoinevitable in a West Wing that as-sumed that rapid virus tests foreveryone who entered each morn-ing were substitutes for othersafety measures, like social dis-tancing and wearing masks.

But the outcome was also a by-product, former aides said, of therecklessness and top-down cul-ture of fear that Mr. Trump creat-ed at the White House andthroughout his administration. If

Continued on Page 8

In West Wing,Fear of Boss,Not Infection

By ANNIE KARNIand MAGGIE HABERMAN

Bob Gibson, who won two Cy YoungAwards with St. Louis, was one of base-ball’s most dominating and intimidatingpitchers. He was 84. PAGE 25

OBITUARIES 25-27

A Feared Flamethrower

WASHINGTON — The WhiteHouse offered a barrage of con-flicting messages and contradic-tory accounts about PresidentTrump’s health on Saturday as heremained hospitalized with the co-ronavirus for a second night andthe outbreak spread to a widerswath of his political allies.

Just minutes after the presi-dent’s doctors painted a rosy pic-ture of his condition on television,Mark Meadows, the White Housechief of staff, gave reporters out-side Walter Reed National Mili-tary Medical Center a far more so-ber assessment off camera, call-ing Mr. Trump’s vital signs worri-some and warning that the nexttwo days would be pivotal to theoutcome of the illness.

“The president’s vitals over thelast 24 hours were very concern-

ing, and the next 48 hours will becritical in terms of his care,” Mr.Meadows told the reporters, ask-ing not to be identified by name.“We’re still not on a clear path to afull recovery.”

In keeping with the groundrules he had set, Mr. Meadows’sremarks were attributed, in a pool

CONFUSION AND CONCERN AS PRESIDENT AILSSeeking to Reassure

in 4-Minute Video

By PETER BAKERand MAGGIE HABERMAN

President Trump’s remarks onSaturday sent mixed messages.

THE WHITE HOUSE/VIA REUTERS

Continued on Page 7

The Patriots placed quarterback CamNewton on the Covid-19 injury list asthe challenges to the N.F.L. seasongrew more daunting. PAGE 28

SPORTS 28-31

Virus Delays a Big Game

WASHINGTON — When Dr.Sean P. Conley stepped in front ofthe cameras at Walter ReedNational Military Medical Centeron Saturday, he delivered a brief-

ing that seemedintended less toinform the Ameri-can public than tosatisfy the public

relations demands of a famousand famously demanding patient— President Trump.

“He’s doing great,” he said. Butmoments later, the president’schief of staff, Mark Meadows,speaking off camera and on theassumption he would not beidentified, offered a contradic-tory assessment, noting “thepresident’s vitals over the last 24hours were very concerning, andthe next 48 hours will be criticalin terms of his care.”

“We’re still not on a clear pathto a full recovery,” he added.

The radically different mes-sage was stunning, and at firstattributed, at Mr. Meadows’sinsistence, to “a source familiarwith the president’s health”speaking on background, butlater identified as the chief ofstaff.

The discordant statementswere a revealing insight into thedynamics behind the TrumpWhite House’s frequent releaseof misleading information, partic-ularly about the president’shealth. Dr. Conley is a Navydoctor and Mr. Trump is not onlyhis patient but his commander inchief. The president is known tobe especially interested inpresenting his health in the bestpossible light, and his health hasnever been an issue the way it isnow. It is almost certain he waswatching Dr. Conley’s newsconference on TV in his hospitalroom.

For Mr. Meadows, the clarifica-

Medical Spin in PastUndermines Trust

Continued on Page 10

NEWSANALYSIS

By ANNIE KARNI

TREATMENTS The therapies being used are for serious conditions. PAGE 9

MORE MAGA The Trump campaign vows to keep going full speed. PAGE 7

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,836 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2020

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