VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,524 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2019

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With world leaders gathering inMadrid next week for their annualbargaining session over how toavert a climate catastrophe, thelatest assessment issued by theUnited Nations said Tuesday thatgreenhouse gas emissions are stillrising dangerously.

“The summary findings arebleak,” said the annual assess-ment, which is produced by theUnited Nations Environment Pro-gram and is formally known as theEmissions Gap Report. Countrieshave failed to halt the rise ofgreenhouse gas emissions despiterepeated warnings from scien-tists, with China and the UnitedStates, the two biggest polluters,further increasing their emissionslast year.

The result, the authors added, isthat “deeper and faster cuts arenow required.”

As if to underscore the gap be-tween reality and diplomacy, theinternational climate negotia-tions, scheduled to begin nextweek, are not even designed toramp up pledges by world leadersto cut their countries’ emissions.That deadline is still a year away.

Rather, this year’s meetings areintended to hammer out the lastremaining rules on how to imple-ment the 2015 Paris climate ac-cord, in which every countrypledged to rein in greenhousegases, with each setting its owntargets and timetables.

“Madrid is an opportunity to geton course to get the speed and tra-jectory right,” said Rachel Kyte, aformer United Nations climatediplomat who is now dean of theFletcher School at Tufts Univer-sity. “What the Emissions Gap Re-port does is take away any re-maining plausible deniability thatthe current trajectory is not goodenough.”

The world’s 20 richest coun-tries, responsible for more thanthree-fourths of worldwide emis-sions, must take the biggest, swift-est steps to move away from fossilfuels, the report emphasized. Therichest country of all, the UnitedStates, however, has formally be-gun to pull out of the Paris accord.

U.N. REPORT SAYSRISE IN EMISSIONSIS STILL ALARMING

CITING FAILED PROMISES

‘Bleak’ Evaluation LoomsOver New Climate

Talks in Madrid

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Continued on Page A10

ATLANTA — The night beforeDemocratic presidential candi-dates took to a debate stage herelast week, black and Latino char-ter school parents and supportersgathered in a bland hotel confer-ence room nearby to make signsthey hoped would get the poli-ticians’ attention.

“Charter schools = self-deter-mination,” one sign read. “BlackDemocrats want charters!” an-other blared.

At issue is the delicate politics ofrace and education. For more thantwo decades, Democrats havelargely backed public charterschools as part of a compromise todeliver black and Latino families away out of failing district schools.Charters were embraced as an al-ternative to the taxpayer-fundedvouchers for private-school tu-ition supported by Republicans,who were using the issue to woominority voters.

But this year, in a major shift,the leading Democratic candi-dates are backing away fromcharter schools, and siding withthe teachers’ unions that opposetheir expansion. And that has leftsome black and Latino familiesfeeling betrayed.

“As a single mom with two jobsand five hustles, I’m just feelingkind of desperate,” said Sonia Ty-ler, who plans to enroll her chil-dren in a charter school slated toopen next fall in a suburb of Atlan-ta. “They’re brilliant; they’re curi-ous. It’s not fair. Why shouldn’t Ihave a choice?”

Charter schools, which educateover three million students, arepublicly funded and privatelymanaged — and often are not un-ionized. Nationally, the schools

Minority VotersFeel Betrayed

Over Schools

By ERICA L. GREENand ELIZA SHAPIRO

Ja’hari Dixon, a student at Eagle Academy in Washington, D.C. In a major shift, Democrats are backing away from charter schools.NATE PALMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A14

As the life expectancy of Ameri-cans has declined over a period ofthree years — a drop driven byhigher death rates among peoplein the prime of life — the focus hasbeen on the plight of white Ameri-cans in rural areas who were dy-

ing from so-called deaths of de-spair: drug overdoses, alcoholismand suicide.

But a new analysis of more thana half-century of federal mortalitydata, published on Tuesday inJAMA, found that the increaseddeath rates among people inmidlife extended to all racial andethnic groups, and to suburbs andcities.

And while suicides, drug over-doses and alcoholism were themain causes, other medical condi-tions, including heart disease,strokes and chronic obstructivepulmonary disease, also contrib-uted, the authors reported.

“The whole country is at ahealth disadvantage compared toother wealthy nations,” thestudy’s lead author, Dr. Steven

Woolf of Virginia CommonwealthUniversity, said. “We are losingpeople in the most productive pe-riod of their lives. Children are los-ing parents. Employers have asicker work force.”

That some Americans’ lifespans were decreasing has beenwell established. But the level of

‘We Are Losing People’: Adults Across the U.S. Are Dying YoungBy GINA KOLATA

and SABRINA TAVERNISE

Continued on Page A18

WASHINGTON — In 2016,Democrats thought they hadfound the perfect candidate to wina United States Senate seat inPennsylvania and put themwithin striking distance of takingback the majority. But KatieMcGinty, an environmental policyexpert with degrees in chemistryand law, ran into an overwhelmingobstacle: Michael R. Bloomberg’sfortune.

The former mayor of New Yorkpoured in $11.7 million to help re-elect the Republican incumbent,Senator Pat Toomey, who had ledan effort, albeit unsuccessful, toexpand background checks forgun purchasers, a top priority ofMr. Bloomberg’s.

Mr. Toomey won by less thantwo percentage points, handing akey victory to the Senate majorityleader, Mitch McConnell: The Re-publicans held on to control of thechamber by two seats. At the time,it was the most expensive Senaterace the country had ever seen,and Mr. Bloomberg’s money wasone of the largest influxes of out-side influence.

As Mr. Bloomberg begins hiscampaign for the White Housewith a promise to spend as muchas it takes to defeat President

Trump, his Democratic rivals areaccusing him of trying to buy hisway into the Oval Office. But hispolitical spending on behalf of Re-publicans is also coming under at-tack from Democrats who say thathis overlapping political goalswith Republicans in Washington,and in particular with Mr. McCon-nell, are disqualifying.

“For many he went too far whenhe gave money to Pat Toomey,”said Jim Manley, a Democraticconsultant and former senior aideto Harry Reid, the previous Sen-ate leader, pointing out that Ms.McGinty also favored stricter gunregulations and that the race wasso close.

“He tries to play both sides, andhe ends up burning Democrats,”Mr. Manley added. “If that makesyou feel good, I’m glad. But the re-

Bloomberg’s Past Support of G.O.P. Faces AttackBy JEREMY W. PETERSand STEPHANIE SAUL

Continued on Page A14

An Independent StreakAnnoys Democrats in

the Primary Race

CHET STRANGE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Heavy snow hit Boulder, Colo., as large parts of the nation faced holiday travel troubles. Page A19.Turkey, Gravy and Extra Shoveling

Astronaut Snoopy might not becleared for takeoff. The usuallybuoyant SpongeBob SquarePantsmay wind up deflated and de-pressed. Olaf, the garrulous snow-man from “Frozen,” could findhimself melting into a heapingpuddle on the pavement.

That’s because though NewYork City plays Thanksgivinghost to the annual Macy’s parade,it has a strict and specific set ofballoon-flight regulations thathave been in place since 1997,when a windswept inflatable Catin the Hat caused destruction thatleft one woman in a coma fornearly a month.

So as omnipresent as the mam-moth character balloons are, so,too, are weather forecasters, po-lice officers and others trying toguess which way the wind willblow.

Macy’s has a licensed meteor-ologist — armed with a laptop andan open line to the NationalWeather Service — on hand everyyear to observe weather condi-

tions, monitor gusts and helpmake decisions about the floatingcharacters in the procession.

The Police Department assignstrained officers to balloons andhas seven wind-monitoring de-vices, called anemometers, tomeasure gusts along the routeand guide the parade accordingly.

“We are always attuned toweather conditions for Parade

Before SpongeBob Can Soar,Weather Teams Vet City’s Skies

By MICHAEL GOLD

Continued on Page A21

High winds may ground thebig balloons on Thanksgiving.

HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

A culinary symbol of Montreal is en-snared in a battle pitting environmen-talists against bagel makers. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Bagel Rivals Unite in CanadaSix cooks share their secrets on howthey make the Thanksgiving spreadas beautiful as it is delicious. PAGE D8

FOOD D1-12

Feast Your Eyes on This

The Democratic presidential candidateshave adopted an abortion-rights agendamore far reaching than anything pro-posed by past nominees. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A11-19

Beyond ‘Safe, Legal and Rare’Mom influencers hold great sway overtheir online audiences. So how muchresearch should they do before criticiz-ing a company? PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Taking Stock of Moms’ PowerMelina Matsoukas’s film “Queen &Slim” is a dreamy but intense outlawromance, A.O. Scott writes. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-12

Love on the Run

At least 23 people were killed and hun-dreds injured when a 6.4-magnitudequake struck near the capital. PAGE A7

Albania Searches for Survivors

Whether a bronze of the goddess wasmade in 1597 or 1697 is the subject of amultimillion-dollar dispute. PAGE C1

Arguing Over Venus’s Age

A feud over a 1 percent local tax turnedinto a referendum on government itselfin tiny Amelia, Ohio. PAGE A11

A Tax Is Gone. So Is the Town.

After a fiasco last season, the leaguetook steps to better enforce pass inter-ference. And it’s a fiasco. PAGE B8

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-10

N.F.L.’s Push Comes to Shove

A report details how Russia put fakemessages in a database to try to dis-credit a whistle-blower. PAGE B7

Inside a Doping Cover-UpSome Long Island Republicans hopeLara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, will run for the House. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A20-21

Another Trump on the Ballot?Frank Bruni PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

As the holiday looms, no algorithm cancomfort hordes of harried cooks likeButterball’s Turkey Talk-Line. PAGE D1

Rescuing Thanksgiving Cooks

WASHINGTON — Two officialsat the White House budget officeresigned this year partly becauseof their concerns about PresidentTrump’s decision to hold up con-gressionally approved securityassistance to Ukraine, a third aideat the office told impeachment in-vestigators, revealing dissentwithin a key agency about Mr.Trump’s refusal to release themoney.

Mark Sandy, an official at theWhite House Office of Manage-ment and Budget, told the HouseIntelligence Committee in a pri-vate interview this month that oneof the officials “expressed somefrustrations about not under-standing the reason for the hold”before resigning in September.

A second co-worker, an officialin the legal division of the office,also resigned after offering a “dis-senting opinion” about whether itwas legal to hold up the aid, Mr.Sandy testified, according to atranscript of his testimony re-leased by the committee on Tues-day.

He did not identify either offi-cial, and it was unclear how seniorthey were or how directly theirresignations were tied to theirconcerns over the withholding ofthe aid. But Mr. Sandy’s account oftheir departures — after weeks ofunanswered questions inside thebudget office about why Mr.Trump had directed the fundingfrozen — underscores the depth ofthe pushback inside a key WhiteHouse agency about a decisionmany officials believed was le-gally questionable and potentiallydangerous.

The issue is at the core of the im-peachment inquiry, whichmarched forward on Tuesday asthe House Judiciary Committeeannounced its first hearing nextweek and invited Mr. Trump’s le-gal team to participate. Demo-crats have charged that Mr.Trump abused his power to enlistUkraine in smearing his politicalrivals, in part by withholding thenearly $400 million package of aidthe country desperately neededwhile insisting that its leaders an-nounce investigations of former

2 Budget AidesQuit After HoldOn Kyiv Funds

Official Tells of Dissentat the White House

By MICHAEL D. SHEARand NICHOLAS FANDOS

Continued on Page A17

TIMELINE The president knew ofthe whistle-blower before releas-ing aid for Ukraine. PAGE A16

Late EditionToday, clouds, becoming breezy, af-ternoon showers, high 56. Tonight,very windy, low 45. Tomorrow, verywindy, periodic sunshine, cooler,high 51. Weather map, Page A24.

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