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The border between the United States and Mexico runs1,900 miles along four states — California, New Mexico,Arizona and Texas — and a fence already stands on 700 ofthose miles, like the one above bordering Nogales, Mex-ico. President Trump’s order to begin building more of awall has left many along the border, including José PabloSanchez Carillo, left, wondering what it will mean forthem and the future. PAGES A14-15.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Life Along the Border

WASHINGTON — Judge NeilM. Gorsuch, President Trump’snominee for the Supreme Court,privately expressed dismay onWednesday over Mr. Trump’s in-creasingly aggressive attacks onthe judiciary, calling the presi-dent’s criticism of independentjudges “demoralizing” and “dis-heartening.”

The remarks by Judge Gor-such, chosen by Mr. Trump lastweek to serve on the nation’s high-est court, came as the presidentlashed out at the federal appellatejudges who are considering achallenge to his executive orderbanning travel from seven pre-dominantly Muslim countries.The president called their judicialproceedings “disgraceful” and de-scribed the courts as “so political.”

Those remarks followed Mr.Trump’s weekend Twitter out-burst in which he derided a Seattlecircuit court judge who blockedhis travel ban as a “so-calledjudge” whose “ridiculous” rulingwould be overturned.

Judge Gorsuch expressed hisdisappointment with Mr. Trump’scomments about the judiciary in aprivate conversation with SenatorRichard Blumenthal, Democrat ofConnecticut, as he paid courtesycalls on Capitol Hill to build sup-port for his confirmation. An ac-count of the discussion was con-firmed by a White House adviserworking to advance the Gorsuchconfirmation, who spoke on condi-tion of anonymity because he wasnot authorized to comment.

The spectacle of a Supreme

COURT PICK SAYSTRUMP’S CENSUREIS ‘DEMORALIZING’

REMARK MADE PRIVATELY

Gorsuch Break Is Rare— President AgainQuestions Judges

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

Continued on Page A13

WASHINGTON — Senator JeffSessions was confirmed onWednesday as President Trump’sattorney general, capping a bitterand racially charged nominationbattle that crested with the pro-cedural silencing of a leadingDemocrat, Senator ElizabethWarren.

Mr. Sessions, an Alabama Re-publican, survived a near-party-line vote, 52 to 47, in the latest signof the extreme partisanship atplay as Mr. Trump strains to in-stall his cabinet. No Republicansbroke ranks in their support of acolleague who will become the na-tion’s top law enforcement officialafter two decades in the Senate.

But the confirmation process —ferocious even by the standards ofmoldering decorum that have de-fined the body’s recent years —laid bare the Senate’s deep divi-sions at the outset of the Trumppresidency. At the same time, thetreatment of Ms. Warren, who wasforced to stop speaking late Tues-day after criticizing Mr. Sessionsfrom the Senate floor, rekindledthe gender-infused politics thatanimated the presidential electionand the women’s march pro-testing Mr. Trump the day afterhis inauguration last month.[Page A17.]

Mr. Sessions cast his final voteas a senator to note that he waspresent for Wednesday’s tally. Hisconfirmation was met by ap-plause from his colleagues, includ-ing a few Democrats, on the Sen-ate floor.

“I can’t express how apprecia-tive I am for those of you whostood by me during this difficulttime,” Mr. Sessions said shortly af-ter the vote. “By your vote tonight,I have been given a real challenge.I’ll do my best to be worthy of it.”

Democrats spent the hours be-fore the vote on Wednesdayseething over the rebuke of Ms.

SENATE CONFIRMSSESSIONS TO LEADTHE JUSTICE DEPT.

RACIALLY CHARGED FIGHT

After a Rebuke, WarrenLeads Democrats in

Opposition

By ERIC LICHTBLAUand MATT FLEGENHEIMER

Continued on Page A17

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A north-ern Syrian city that is one of theIslamic State’s last enclaves in thecountry is under assault by mili-tary forces bearing down from allsides.

The complication is that the ad-vancing forces — the Syrian Armyand pro-government militiasbacked by Russia, and Syrianrebels backed by Turkey — aresworn enemies.

Their simultaneous race toseize the city, Al Bab, has turnedinto a test of how a global realign-ment of powers supporting Syria’santagonists could help reshape orend the nearly six-year-old con-flict.

Al Bab, which had roughly100,000 people when the war be-gan in 2011, is the last urban areaheld by the Islamic State west ofits proclaimed capital, Raqqa,where the group remains en-trenched.

Russia and Turkey haveswerved in recent months fromoutright hostility to working moreclosely in a diplomatic effortaimed at resolving the conflict, af-ter fitful and repeated failures ledby the United Nations and theUnited States.

But in the battle for Al Bab, Rus-sia and Turkey must transformtheir newfound understandinginto results on the ground, withthe ambitious goal of pushingtheir Syrian partners into de facto

military cooperation. Otherwisethey risk creating a new flashpoint.

The coming days will show ifthe Syrian foes, who do not alwaysobey their patrons, will work to-gether for the first time againstthe Islamic State, or drive out theextremists and then try to kill oneanother.

The answers could shed light onwhether Russia and Turkey havethe leverage to push the opposing

Battle to Retake City Turns Into Geopolitical Test of Syrian WarBy ANNE BARNARD

Continued on Page A7

LONDON — In November 1967,four years after her husband’s as-sassination, Jacqueline Kennedytraveled to the temples of AngkorWat in Cambodia on a much-publi-cized trip with David OrmsbyGore, a friend of her husband andhimself a recent widower.

There was much speculation ofa romantic attachment. A fewmonths later, Mr. Ormsby Gore, aformer British ambassador toWashington, proposed marriage.She turned him down.

In a handwritten letter, filledwith anguish and a touch of cru-elty, she explained her decision tomarry Aristotle Onassis instead.

“If ever I can find some healingand some comfort — it has to bewith somebody who is not part ofall my world of past and pain,” shewrote. “I can find that now — if theworld will let us.”

The letter was part of a set of pa-

pers found in locked red-leathercases discovered only last monthin Wales at the family home of Mr.Ormsby Gore, who died in 1985.They are being auctioned in Lon-don next month by his grandsonto help restore the house.

The letters point to the depth offeeling behind the public mask of

one of the most celebrated womenof her time.

Among them is the letter to Mr.Ormsby Gore, also known as LordHarlech, dated Nov. 13, 1968, amonth after her marriage to Mr.Onassis and five months after theassassination of Robert F. Ken-nedy.

In it, Mrs. Kennedy spoke of thelove and bond she felt for Mr.Ormsby Gore, whose wife haddied in a car crash in May 1967.“We have known so much &shared & lost so much together —Even if it isn’t the way you wishnow — I hope that bond of love andpain will never be cut.”

Writing from Mr. Onassis’ yachtin Greece, on stationery with theship’s crest, a clear if cold mes-sage, Mrs. Kennedy told Mr.Ormsby Gore: “You are like mybeloved beloved brother — andmentor — and the only originalspirit I know — as you were to

Jackie Kennedy’s Letters to the Man She Told NoBy STEVEN ERLANGER

For sale: Jacqueline Kennedy’sletters to her rejected suitor.

ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A8

The New York Police Depart-ment on Wednesday announcedplans to send 75 new investigatorsto the Bronx to address a steepand longstanding shortage of de-tectives in the department’s mostviolent and underserved borough.

The chief of detectives, RobertK. Boyce, told city lawmakers at ahearing that the influx was aimedat easing enormous caseloads,which retired police leaders sayhave hindered investigative workin the Bronx for decades.

Homicides in New York Cityhave been falling, but the depart-ment’s plans for the Bronx reflecta growing recognition by policechiefs in cities experiencing up-ticks in murder that heavycaseloads let crimes go unsolvedand feed a cycle of street violence.

The plan for the infusion of re-sources comes five weeks after

The New York Times published ananalysis of confidential deploy-ment data showing that precinctdetectives in the Bronx last yearcarried more than twice as manyviolent felony cases on average asdetectives in Manhattan or onStaten Island, and over 50 percentmore than those in Brooklyn or

Queens.The new deployment is a signif-

icant investment in front-line in-vestigative work for parts of theBronx that have not experiencedthe same improvements in overallcrime rates in recent decades aswealthier parts of the city, espe-cially at a time when detective re-sources are increasingly pulled to-ward counterterrorism opera-tions. Department leaders, whofor years have kept deploymentinformation under wraps evenamid major budgetary decisions,acknowledged in frank terms onWednesday that parts of the cityremained in need.

“We saw that some of the detec-tive squads up there are morethan just a little bit challenged,”Chief Boyce said of the Bronx.“They’re flooded with more casesthan they were last year.”

Police supervisors in the Bronxembraced the news of the re-

Police to Strengthen a Beleaguered Bronx ForceBy BENJAMIN MUELLER

and AL BAKER

The 40th Precinct stationhouse, in the South Bronx.

ÁNGEL FRANCO/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A24

Late Edition

VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,503 © 2017 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017

ETHICAL ISSUES The presidentcriticized a store chain that cuthis daughter’s products. PAGE A18

SPONSORS’ TALE A congregationcheered the New York arrival of afamily of Syrian Kurds. PAGE A22

A Russian court revived an old convic-tion against the opposition candidateAleksei A. Navalny in a move seen asan attempt by President Vladimir V.Putin to derail an election rival. PAGE A6

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

Court Derails Putin Rival

Scientists worry that a rift in a majorice shelf is growing so rapidly — by alength of about five football fields a day— that it is close to a full break. PAGE A8

Alarm Over Antarctic Crack

Lionsgate seemed to be stuck under astorm cloud for much of 2016, but strongearnings and major hits like “La LaLand” have turned that perceptionaround. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

A Movie Company’s Comeback

Atlanta is moving a colossal oil paint-ing, “The Battle of Atlanta,” acrosstown. It’s no easy feat for a deteriorat-ing, 130-year-old artwork longer than afootball field. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A10-20

Moving Picture

Documents show police, fire and cityofficials in Oakland, Calif., were calledto a warehouse scores of times before afire killed 36 people there. PAGE A20

Warnings Before Oakland Fire

The Revolutionary War-era BaxterHouse on Long Island, a ruin afterburning this week, was in disrepair,caught in a tug of war between preserva-tionists, officials and the owner. PAGE A25

NEW YORK A22-25

Suspicions Spread After Blaze

The N.H.L.’s onerous demand in a class-action lawsuit on head injuries seems toshow little regard for accepted scientificfacts, Juliet Macur writes. PAGE B8

SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-12

Hockey’s Science Problem

Can the designer Raf Simons breathenew life into Calvin Klein? The answermay come at his debut show for the labelat New York Fashion Week. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-12

A New Day at Calvin Klein

Nicholas Kristof PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Today, snow tapering, 8 to 12 inchestotal, windy, much colder, high 31early. Tonight, clearing, colder, low17. Tomorrow, sunshine, clouds, cold,high 29. Weather map, Page B12.

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