VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,021 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2018

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BRUSSELS — PresidentTrump escalated his campaign ofcriticism against European allieson Wednesday, accusing Ger-many of being “captive to Russia”and demanding that all NATOmembers double their militaryspending targets.

On the first of two days of meet-ings with NATO leaders, Mr.Trump stopped short of any sub-stantive breaks with the alliance,reaching agreement on a plan toimprove military readiness andsigning on to a joint statementthat emphasized burden-sharingand harshly criticized Russia.

But coming just days before heis to meet President Vladimir V.Putin of Russia, Mr. Trump’s criti-cal stance toward the allies fo-cused additional attention onlongstanding concerns by theUnited States about the willing-ness of Europe to shoulder itsshare of the financial burden forNATO. Mr. Trump again de-manded that the allies all meettheir commitment to raise theirmilitary budgets to 2 percent oftheir economic output by 2024, butthen further stepped up the pres-sure by saying they should makeit 4 percent.

More broadly, his performance,leavened at times by a more re-assuring tone, left his fellow lead-ers struggling anew to judgewhether he was posturing in an ef-fort to win a better deal for theUnited States, moving to weakeninstitutions at the heart of thepost-World War II order or both.

Mr. Trump was primed for con-frontation before the gatheringwas even called to order in a largeglass-and-steel NATO headquar-ters building that he has com-plained looks overly lavish. At abreakfast with Jens Stoltenberg,the NATO secretary general, Mr.Trump suggested that he hadcome to Brussels as a virtual pa-riah among allies, and was per-fectly happy to be seen that way.

“I think the secretary generallikes Trump,” he said, alluding toallies’ stepping up their militaryspending in response to his pres-

U.S. PUSHES ALLIESTO LIFT SPENDINGFOR THE MILITARY

TRUMP ROILS NATO EVENT

Despite ConfrontationalStance, Signing On to

Criticism of Russia

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

Continued on Page A8

THAILAND GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN BUREAU, VIA REUTERS

Doctors in Thailand said 12 boys and their coach were healing well under quarantine after spending days trapped in a cave. Page A4.Road to Recovery

In a shrine on the sixth floor of aManhattan office building, a photoof a man in golden robes hangsabove an altar. Another photo ofhim sits upon a throne.

He is the head of one of the larg-est Buddhist organizations in theWest, Shambhala International, anetwork of more than 200 out-posts in over 30 countries wherethousands come for training inmeditation and mindfulness andsome delve into deeper mysteries.

The man is Mipham Rinpoche.He is known as the Sakyong, a Ti-betan word that translatesroughly as king, and his studentstake vows to follow him that arebinding across lifetimes. Thesedays, they are feeling sad, con-fused, angry and betrayed.

Late last month, a formerShambhala teacher released a re-port alleging that the Sakyonghad sexually abused and ex-ploited some of his most devotedfemale followers for years. Wom-en quoted in the report wrote ofdrunken groping and forcefullyextracted sexual favors. The re-port said that senior leaders at

Shambhala — an organizationwhose motto is “Making Enlight-ened Society Possible” — knew ofthe Sakyong’s misconduct andcovered it up.

The Sakyong apologized a fewdays before the report was for-mally released, admitting to “rela-tionships” with women in the com-munity, some of whom “shared ex-

periences of feeling harmed as aresult.” Followers and Shambhalagroups around the world de-manded more action.

On Friday, it came: The govern-ing council of Shambhala Interna-tional, which is based in Halifax,Nova Scotia, resigned en masse,“in the interest of beginning a

Women Allege Abuse, and a Buddhist ‘King’ FallsBy ANDY NEWMAN

Mipham Rinpoche has taken leave for “self-reflection.”ANDREW VAUGHAN/CANADIAN PRESS, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A21

KUANTAN, Malaysia —Amanda Lacaze grabbed heriPhone and rattled off the namesof the special minerals needed tomake it. The screen was polishedwith lanthanum and cerium. Theinside has a magnet made withneodymium and praseodymium.

Those minerals almost cer-tainly came from China. Ms. La-caze’s job is to give the world analternative source, in case a globaltrade war spirals out of controland China cuts off supply.

Right now, she can’t. Her com-pany, Lynas Corporation, can pro-vide only a fraction of the minerals— known as rare earths — thatChina produces. And even thatsource isn’t a sure thing: Thework is so volatile, complex andexpensive that Lynas once cameclose to collapsing.

“There were times where wewere sitting there and I’m saying,‘Can we really afford to put coffeeinto the staff rooms?’” Ms. Lacazesaid.

The Trump administrationamped up its trade fight withChina on Tuesday when it threat-

ened to impose tariffs on an addi-tional $200 billion in Chinesegoods, ranging from frozen catfishfillets to copper wires to piston en-gines. China has threatened tomatch them dollar for dollar.

But it has other ways to retali-ate beyond tariffs. It could refuseto buy American products, likeplanes from Boeing. It could inten-

sify regulation of American com-panies doing business on themainland. It could threaten to off-load a piece of its huge portfolio ofTreasuries, which could rattle thebond market.

And in one of its more strategicweapons, Beijing could use itsdominance to cut off key parts of

Rare Earths May Tilt a Trade War. Rare Whats?By ALEXANDRA STEVENSON

Lynas Corporation provides materials for phones, TVs and cars.RAHMAN ROSLAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A10

Twitter will begin removingtens of millions of suspicious ac-counts from users’ followers onThursday, signaling a major neweffort to restore trust on the popu-lar but embattled platform.

The reform takes aim at a per-vasive form of social media fraud.Many users have inflated their fol-lowers on Twitter or other serv-ices with automated or fake ac-counts, buying the appearance ofsocial influence to bolster their po-litical activism, business endeav-ors or entertainment careers.

Twitter’s decision will have animmediate impact: Beginning onThursday, many users, includingthose who have bought fake fol-lowers and any others who are fol-lowed by suspicious accounts, willsee their follower numbers fall.While Twitter declined to providean exact number of affected users,the company said it would striptens of millions of questionable ac-counts from users’ followers. Themove would reduce the total com-bined follower count on Twitter by

about 6 percent — a substantialdrop.

An investigation by The NewYork Times in January demon-strated that just one small Floridacompany sold fake followers andother social media engagement tohundreds of thousands of usersaround the world, including poli-ticians, models, actors and au-thors. The revelations promptedinvestigations in at least twostates and calls in Congress for in-tervention by the Federal TradeCommission. In interviews thisweek, Twitter executives said thatThe Times’s reporting pushedthem to look more closely at stepsthe company could take to clampdown on the market for fakes,which is fueled in part by thegrowing political and commercialvalue of a widely followed Twitteraccount.

Officials at Twitter acknowl-edged that easy access to fake fol-lowers, and the company’s slow-

Twitter Purges Its Fake FollowersTo Restore the Power of Influence

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and GABRIEL J.X. DANCE

Continued on Page A13

BOONVILLE, Ind. — Joe Don-nelly knew his audience: Ad-dressing a group of camouflage-clad union mine workers and re-tirees here last weekend, theDemocratic senator trumpetedhis efforts to protect their pen-sions and health care, asked at-tendees to raise their hands if theyknew someone with a pre-existinghealth condition, and made not asingle mention of the coming Su-preme Court vote that could deter-mine his political fate in Novem-ber.

“It’s a big deal to those whoknow it’s a big deal, but it doesn’ttranslate to folks that go to workevery day — they’re focused onthings that make their life better,”said Russ Stillwell, a former Dem-ocratic state lawmaker from thissouthern Indiana community, ex-plaining why Mr. Donnelly had ig-nored the most urgent topic inWashington just days before Pres-ident Trump would nominateJudge Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Two days later, in a Democraticcampaign office at a strip mall ineastern Pennsylvania, a differentatmosphere prevailed in the run-up to Mr. Kavanaugh’s nomina-tion. Susan Wild, who is runningfor an open House seat in her Le-high Valley district, and severaldozen volunteers made phonecalls Monday evening to womenin the area, warning them that an-other conservative justice wouldput Roe v. Wade “in more dangerthan ever,” as a script provided tocampaign workers described it.

“It’s not just Roe — it’s a lot ofthings Democrats care about,”said Barbara Diamond, a local ac-tivist who joined the volunteersession. “Affirmative action, theA.C.A., gun control — lots ofthings the court has the power toroll back.”

The monthslong SupremeCourt clash that lies ahead willdraw hundreds of thousands of ac-tivists to the fray, produce tens of

A Court Battle, if Not a Spark,Will Fan the Midterm Flames

By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS

Continued on Page A16

A technique that uses electrical fields toquickly tweak genes in immune cellscould lead to new treatments. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A12-18

An Advance in Gene EditingCambodia isn’t a one-party state. Butthe party of Prime Minister Hun Sen isthe only one most voters in the July 29election will have heard of. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Packed Ballot, but No SuspenseThe family firm of Jared Kushner, thepresident’s son-in-law and adviser, isdoing deals with investors who have alot riding on federal decisions. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

Where Business Meets PoliticsAt home with the CNN pundits MargaretHoover and John Avlon, who are in apolitically mixed marriage. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-6

A Couple to Contend WithThe second season of “The Handmaid’sTale” gave in to its most tedious in-stincts, Margaret Lyons writes. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Brutal and Not Much Else

It used to be just something you had tohave in the house. Now it is a way forthe 1 percent to show off. PAGE D1

Soap as a Status SymbolJade Quintanilla and other transgender,lesbian or gay migrants have encoun-tered bias and exploitation. PAGE A12

Asylum Is Elusive for Some

A trickle of families separated at theborder were reunited, while thousandsremained apart. PAGE A19

NEW YORK A19-21

Tears as Immigrants Reunite

Women from Ireland to the Philippineswho have had the procedure sharedeeply personal experiences. PAGE A6

Lives Behind Abortion Debates

Mario Mandzukic’s goal in extra timesent Croatia over England, and to itsfirst World Cup final. PAGE B7

SPORTSTHURSDAY B7-12

A Win and History for Croatia

Kevin Anderson rallied past RogerFederer, the No. 1 seed and defendingchampion, for a five-set victory. PAGE B9

Federer Exits Wimbledon

The first American production of “Fid-dler on the Roof” in the language of theshtetl is premiering Sunday. PAGE C1

Saying ‘Tradition’ in Yiddish

Nicholas Kristof PAGE A24

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25

BRUSSELS — PresidentTrump wasted no time. NATO’ssecretary general, Jens Stol-tenberg, could barely finish thegreetings at Wednesday’s break-fast when Mr. Trump launchedinto a clearly planned attack.

It wasn’t directed at terrorism.It wasn’t against a military threat.Instead, it was aimed at Germany,one of the alliance’s most impor-tant members.

Germany, Mr. Trump said, is toodependent on Russia for its ener-gy needs. “We have to talk aboutthe billions and billions of dollarsthat’s being paid to the countrywe’re supposed to be protectingyou against,” he told the startledMr. Stoltenberg at the opening ofthe NATO summit meeting

“I think it’s something thatNATO has to look at,” Mr. Trumpsaid.

Chancellor Angela Merkel ofGermany, politically weakened athome, reacted mildly but point-edly to Mr. Trump’s remarks, not-ing that she grew up in Soviet-oc-cupied East Germany.

“I myself experienced a part ofGermany that was controlled bythe Soviet Union, and I am veryhappy today that we are united infreedom as the Federal Republicof Germany,” she said as she en-tered the NATO building. “We de-cide our own policies and makeour own decisions, and that’s verygood.”

The quiet rejoinder given byMs. Merkel, leader of Europe’smost powerful country, seemed toencapsulate the complexities shefaces in dealing with Mr. Trump. Italso reflected her seeming reluc-tance to be the Western demo-cratic voice that publicly standsup to him.

Ms. Merkel has denounced Rus-sia’s aggression in Ukraine andhas defended multilateral institu-tions like the European Union,NATO, the United Nations and theWorld Trade Organization. Shealso has spoken openly about theneed for Europe to do more in itsown interests and rely less on theUnited States in the age of theTrump administration.

But Ms. Merkel has been hesi-tant to engage in harsh exchangeswith Mr. Trump. In fact, her for-eign minister, Heiko Maas, gave amuch sharper response to Mr.Trump’s disparaging remarks on

Merkel RepliesTo U.S. Attacks

With Caution

Hesitant to Provoke thePresident Further

By STEVEN ERLANGERand JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

Continued on Page A8

Late EditionToday, periodic clouds and sunshine,seasonable, high 83. Tonight, mostlyclear, low 69. Tomorrow, sunny topartly cloudy, seasonable, high 83.Weather map appears on Page A18.

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