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LUNES 7 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2020 | Año XLV | Número 15.849 | EDICIÓN MADRID | Precio: 1,70 euros
Borja-Villel: “El modelo de museo egoísta no volverá” P26
REINA SOFÍA
Regina Martínez, un asesinato para silenciar a la prensa P3
MÉXICO
La regularización de Juan Carlos I afecta a ingresos por encima de medio millón
El chavismo afianza su poder en unos comicios con alta abstención La mayoría de partidos opositores boicotea la votación por fraudulenta FLOANTONIA SINGER, Caracas Venezuela celebró ayer unas elecciones legislativas para afianzar el poder del chavismo en un clima de desmovilización que, según las encuestas previas, se traduciría en una participación del 30%, la más baja desde la llegada al poder de Hugo Chávez. La mayor parte de los partidos opositores, incluido el de Juan Guaidó, se negaron a participar en unos comicios para renovar la Asamblea Nacional que consideran fraudulentos. Ni EE UU ni la UE reconocerán los resultados. PÁGINA 2
La investigación inicial ve indicios de delito fiscal en dos ejercicios JOSÉ MANUEL ROMERO, Madrid El equipo jurídico del rey emérito Juan Carlos I ha planteado a la Agencia Tributaria su propuesta de regularización fiscal de unos
Casado califica de “asunto privado” el caso del rey emérito XOSÉ HERMIDA, Madrid La noticia de que el rey emérito ha iniciado el proceso para una regularización fiscal fue despachada ayer por Pablo Casado, presidente del Partido Popular, como un “asunto de ámbito privado” en el que solo puede entrar “otro poder del Estado”, en referencia al Tribunal Supremo. Pablo Echenique, portavoz de Unidas Podemos, dijo que la regularización equivale a “una confesión de que defraudó”. Tanto el Gobierno como el PSOE guardaron silencio sobre las revelaciones de EL PAÍS. PÁGINA 15
Bruselas urge a España a la reforma laboral y de las pensiones LL. PELLICER / C. PÉREZ Bruselas / Madrid Bruselas quiere aprovechar la inyección de fondos europeos para atar las reformas estructurales que España lleva años postergando: la de las pensiones, la del mercado laboral y la que salve la unidad del mercado ante la fragmentación regulatoria. PÁGINA 38
ingresos no declarados que, según fuentes judiciales, superan el medio millón de euros en tres ejercicios. Se trata de fondos ajenos, a cuenta del empresario mexicano Allen Sanginés-Krause, que Juan Carlos I empleó supuestamente sin declararlos a Hacienda entre 2016 y 2018, cuando ya no estaba protegido por la inviolabilidad, pues abdicó en junio de 2014. Al menos dos de esos ejercicios supondrían un delito fiscal. Parte del dinero usado por el rey emérito en ese periodo para pagar viajes, hoteles, restaurantes y otros gastos procedía de cuentas de su amigo mexicano, y pudo disponer de ellos a través del coronel del Aire Nicolás Murga Mendoza, que intervino como testaferro, según la investigación abierta por la Fiscalía Anticorrupción. Antes de que el caso fuera remitido al Tribunal Supremo, los fiscales llegaron a sumar algo más de 500.000 euros entre los gastos acreditados de Juan Carlos I y de otros miembros de su familia. Hasta ahora, ni Hacienda ni la Fiscalía se han querellado contra él, por lo que puede acogerse a la regularización. PÁGINA 14
Frontex admite devoluciones irregulares de migrantes a Turquía
DISTANCIA EN EL DÍA DE LA CONSTITUCIÓN. El Congreso de los Diputados celebró ayer, de forma atípica por la pandemia, el 42º aniversario de la Ley Fundamental. El acto se trasladó a la Carrera de San Jerónimo, con las autoridades separadas. / SANTI BURGOS
B. DE MIGUEL / G. ABRIL, Bruselas La agencia europea de fronteras, Frontex, ha admitido que conoce más de una treintena de supuestas devoluciones en caliente de inmigrantes de Grecia a Turquía. La Comisión Europea ha pedido explicaciones al organismo por su negligencia o complicidad con los retornos ilegales revelados por medios alemanes. EL PAÍS ha accedido a un documento con la respuesta de Frontex. PÁGINA 5
Empleados de residencias y servicios sociales de Gibraltar recibirán en unos días sus dosis
Para encontrar soluciones Suscríbete a los hechos
Los 273 primeros españoles de la vacuna JESÚS A. CAÑAS, Gibraltar Gibraltar tendrá a finales de semana las primeras dosis de la vacuna contra la covid de Pfizer, ya autorizada en el Reino Unido. En-
tre los primeros en recibir la inmunización se encuentran 273 españoles que trabajan en residencias para la tercera edad y servicios sociales del Peñón. PÁGINA 23
Wuhan, sin contagios desde mayo, vive aún con el trauma de la pandemia P20
Y
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$2.75 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER
© 2020
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latimes.com
MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2020
Becerra chosen to join Cabinet
State enters a new phase of peril
Biden picks California attorney general to lead Health and Human Services, the first Latino in the role.
Three-week regional stay-at-home order begins as deaths near 20,000, the economy falters and cases soar.
By Noam N. Levey, Evan Halper and Patrick McGreevy WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has tapped California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra to be the next Health and Human Services secretary, a historic choice that would make the former Los Angeles congressman the first Latino to hold the office, according to sources familiar with the decision. Becerra, 62, a rising star in California politics, has become one of the most important defenders of the Affordable Care Act, leading the fight to preserve the landmark law against efforts by the Trump administration and conservative states to persuade federal courts to repeal it. Becerra also has carved out an increasingly important role confronting healthcare costs, using his position to challenge pricing practices at Sutter Health, one of California’s most powerful medical systems. And he has become a leading champion of reproductive health, going to court repeatedly to challenge Trump administration efforts to scale back women’s access to abortion services and contraceptive coverage. Latino advocacy groups, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, have been [See Becerra, A12]
Biden to inherit a long list of global problems By Chris Megerian and Eli Stokols WASHINGTON — When Joe Biden left the vice president’s office four years ago, the United States was a champion of the Paris climate accord, the architect of the multinational Iran nuclear deal and the leader of a 12-nation free-trade pact in the Pacific Rim region intended to limit China’s growing influence. None of those things is true anymore as he prepares to be inaugurated as commander in chief next month. Even as he will be preoccupied by the deadly coronavirus crisis at home, Biden faces a daunting array of global challenges, frayed alliances and emboldened adversaries. And he must confront these issues even as the country has increasingly become skeptical of interventionism and a robust leadership role internationally — especially after President Trump’s “America first” approach. “As much as there are a lot of people who just want to say, ‘We’re back,’ you can’t erase the last four years. And we’ve been heading in this direction for a long time,” said Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a global risk assessment firm. “Everything Trump represents is symptomatic of something deeper in the [See Diplomacy, A12]
By Alex Wigglesworth, Jack Dolan and Rong-Gong Lin II
Photographs by
Marcus Yam Los Angeles Times
HAZRAT BILAL , right, and fellow Afghan National Police officers man a checkpoint where they search all
travelers crossing the dry riverbed from Zhari district into Panjwayi district outside the city of Kandahar.
As U.S. exits Afghanistan, Taliban regains strength With American troops rushing to leave by the spring, the Afghan army and police are struggling against the insurgents By David S. Cloud, Stefanie Glinski and Marcus Yam
A MAN SURVEYS the destruction in a classroom after gunmen killed at least 19 people and wounded at least 22 more in a Nov. 2 attack at Kabul University.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — When Taliban insurgents attacked Sangsar village in late October, they were fighting for lost ground again within their reach. Fighters besieged the mud-walled town, ringed by corn and cannabis fields. They gunned down six police officers who had run out of ammunition after three days of fighting. “It was the first time in many years they were that strong,” said Raqya Aslam, a 30-year-old villager. It was in Sangsar, 25 miles outside the southern city of Kandahar, that the Taliban movement was founded in 1994 by a oneeyed local cleric. A decade ago, Taliban fighters waged a hit-and-run insurgency [See Afghanistan, A4]
The pandemic that has killed nearly 20,000 Californians and brought a oncebooming economy to its knees entered a treacherous phase Sunday as much of the state began a new stayat-home order and coronavirus cases soared to unprecedented highs that show no signs of slowing down. The Department of Public Health in Los Angeles County, a hot spot of the coronavirus in California, reported more than 10,500 new cases Sunday, a staggering number for a single day that underscores fears that the virus spread rapidly during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 neared 3,000 — and L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said that number could rise dramatically in the next few weeks as the full toll of the holiday comes into view. This was the seventh consecutive day of recordbreaking COVID-19 hospitalizations in L.A. County, and more than quadruple the number from early October, when there were about 700 hospitalized people with the disease. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing daily hospitalizations approaching [See Stay-at-home, A7]
‘Stay at home’ losing its power As fatigue and mistrust set in among public, experts say there’s a better message. CALIFORNIA, B1
A baby died. Was it an accident or crime? Case involving drugs, a former USC dean and his 911 call presents challenges By Matt Hamilton and Harriet Ryan The death of a newborn named Boaz Yoder in an Altadena apartment seemed at first glance like a case of sudden infant death syndrome. His mother told investigators she had put the baby boy to sleep under blankets on a chilly autumn night in 2017 and found him the next morning lifeless in his crib. The closer investigators from the L.A. County Sheriff ’s Department’s Homicide Bureau looked, however, the more doubts they had. The search for the truth plunged Dets. Mike Davis and Gene Morse into a murky world of desperate young addicts and smalltime drug dealers with a disgraced multimillionaire at the center: Dr. Carmen Puliafito, former dean of USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times
BOAZ YODER , who died in 2017 at 25 days old, is buried at Hillside Memorial
Park in Culver City. His mother claimed she found him lifeless in his crib.
Rams lead the NFC West again
After Ga. rally, Trump rebuked
Trojans defeat Cougars 38-13
NFL’s pandemic plans in question
Quarterback Jared Goff stays on target in L.A.’s 38-28 win over Cardinals. SPORTS, D3
GOP leaders fear false voter claims will dim prospects of Republican senators. NATION, A6
USC wide receiver almost single-handedly runs Washington State off the field. SPORTS, D7
Experts are worry that the league’s strategy is putting this season in peril. SPORTS, D1
For 2 ½ years, the detectives and a child-abuse prosecutor circled Puliafito and the baby’s mother, a hairdresser and former nude model. They turned up evidence in County Jail, a toxicology lab and the confidential files of USC’s white-shoe attorneys. What they found was shocking, infuriating and devastatingly sad, but in the end, only one thing mattered: Was it enough for criminal charges? Homicide investigations are rarely easy or quick, but Boaz’s case is notable for the time and resources that law enforcement committed as they sought justice. It’s a case that demonstrates the challenges of child-death investigations and the particular complications of a wealthy and connected suspect — in this case, a worldrenowned physician with a legal team and private investigator at his disposal. [See Baby, A8]
Weather: Some sun. L.A. Basin: 69/50. B6
BUSINESS INSIDE: A battle heats up over a proposal to ban natural gas in new homes. A10
Nxxx,2020-12-07,A,001,Bs-4C,E1
CMYK
Late Edition Today, sunshine, clouds, blustery, cold, high 40. Tonight, partly cloudy, chilly, low 30. Tomorrow, partly sunny, still brisk and cold, high 41. Weather map appears on Page A16.
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NEW YORK, MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2020
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Surprise Pick VACCINE MAY SHIP For Top Office IN DAYS AS CASES In Virus Fight
SURPASS RECORD
Biden Selects Becerra for Health Secretary CRISIS GRIPS CALIFORNIA By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and MICHAEL D. SHEAR
FABIO BUCCIARELLI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Sara Cagliani was consoled at a Mass for her father, Alberto Cagliani. She was unable to carry out his last wish: to bury him in uniform.
Public Transit Hollowed Out by Covid, and Struggling to Cope into history, that its towns will be Faces Big Cuts battlefields from the Trauma and Despair forgotten great first wave, that its dead will NEMBRO, Italy — Every Monengraved names on anAnd Little Help day night in the northern Italian Plague Survivors in become other rusted plaque. By JASON HOROWITZ
By CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM and WILL WRIGHT
In Boston, transit officials warned of ending weekend service on the commuter rail and shutting down the city’s ferries. In Washington, weekend and latenight metro service would be eliminated and 19 of the system’s 91 stations would close. In Atlanta, 70 of the city’s 110 bus routes have already been suspended, a move that could become permanent. And in New York City, home to the largest mass transportation system in North America, transit officials have unveiled a plan that could slash subway service by 40 percent and cut commuter rail service in half. Across the United States, public transportation systems are confronting an extraordinary financial crisis set off by the pandemic, which has starved transit agencies of huge amounts of revenue and threatens to cripple service for years. The profound cuts agencies are contemplating could hobble the recoveries of major cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where reliable transit is a lifeblood of the local economies. Trains and buses carry the office workers, shoppers and tourists who will help revive stores, restaurants, cultural attractions, hotels and other key businesses that have been battered by the outbreak. The financial collapse of transportation agencies would especially hurt minority and low-income riders who tend to be among the biggest users of subways and buses. For months, transit officials around the country have pleaded for help from the federal government, but with no new lifeline forthcoming and many systems facing December deadlines to balance their budgets, agencies have started to outline doomsday service plans that would take effect next year. A glimmer of hope emerged in recent days, when a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress proposed $15 billion for public transit agencies as part of a $908 billion framework for a pandemicrelief package. The plan, which President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has said he supports, would provide nearly half of the $32 billion that transit leaders have lobbied for in recent Continued on Page A8
town that had perhaps the highest coronavirus death rate in all of Europe, a psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress leads group therapy sessions in the local church. “She has treated survivors of war,” the Rev. Matteo Cella, the parish priest of the town, Nembro, in Bergamo province, said of the psychologist. “She says the dynamic is the same.” First the virus exploded in Bergamo. Then came the shell shock. The province that first gave the West a preview of the horrors to come — oxygenstarved grandparents, teeming hospitals and convoys of coffins
Italian Province
rolling down sealed-off streets — now serves as a disturbing postcard from the post-traumatic aftermath. In small towns where many know one another, there is apprehension about other people, but also survivor’s guilt, anger, second thoughts about fateful decisions and nightmares about dying wishes unfulfilled. There is a pervasive anxiety that, with the virus surging anew, Bergamo’s enormous sacrifice will soon recede
And most of all there is a collective grappling to understand how the virus has changed people. Not just their antibodies, but their selves. “It has closed me more,” Monia Cagnoni, 41, who lost her mother to the virus and then developed pneumonia, said as she sat apart from her father and sister on the stairs of their family home. “I want to be more alone.” Her sister, Cinzia, 44, who prepared coffee and cake in the kitchen, had the opposite impulse. “I need people more than ever,” she said. “I don’t like to be alone.” Continued on Page A6
WASHINGTON — Presidentelect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has selected Xavier Becerra, the Democratic attorney general of California, as his nominee for secretary of health and human services, tapping a former congressman who would be the first Latino to run the department as it battles the surging coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Becerra became Mr. Biden’s clear choice only over the past few days, according to people familiar with the transition’s deliberations, and was a surprise. Mr. Becerra has carved out a profile more on the issues of criminal justice, immigration and tax policy, and he was long thought to be a candidate for attorney general. But in California, he has been at the forefront of legal efforts on health care, leading 20 states and the District of Columbia in a campaign to protect the Affordable Care Act from being dismantled by his Republican counterparts. He has also been vocal in the Democratic Party about fighting for women’s health. If confirmed, Mr. Becerra will immediately face a daunting task in leading the department at a critical moment during a pandemic that has killed more than 281,000 people in the United States — and one that has taken a particularly devastating toll on people of color. “The A.C.A. has been lifechanging and now through this pandemic, we can all see the value in having greater access to quality health care at affordable prices,” Mr. Becerra said in June, when he filed a brief with the Supreme Court in defense of the health care law. “Now is not the time to rip away our best tool to address very real and very deadly health disparities in our communities.” A spokesman for Mr. Biden’s transition team declined to comment. The president-elect plans to formally announce Mr. Becerra as his choice to lead the health department early this week, along with several other top health care advisers, according to people familiar with the rollout. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, will be selected to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a person familiar with Mr. Biden’s deliberations. Dr. Walensky, whose selection was reported earlier by Politico, will reContinued on Page A17
Trump Team Emphasizes Speed but Experts Warn of Delays This article is by Michael D. Shear, Apoorva Mandavilli and Jill Cowan.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s top health officials outlined an ambitious timetable on Sunday for distributing the first coronavirus vaccinations to as many as 24 million people by mid-January, even as the accelerating toll of the pandemic filled more hospital beds across the United States and prompted new shutdown orders in much of California. After criticism from Presidentelect Joseph R. Biden Jr. that the administration had “no detailed” vaccine distribution plan, Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser of
PHILIP CHEUNG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mobile test site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last week. Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program, said all residents of long-term care facilities and health workers could receive the first round of vaccinations by midJanuary. A vaccine manufactured by Pfizer could be available by the end of the week, after anticipated approval by the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Slaoui said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, was just as optimistic. “Really within days,” Mr. Azar said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Within 24 hours of F.D.A. green lighting with authorization, we’ll ship to all of the states and territories that we work with. And within hours, they can be vaccinating.” But the hopeful comments were Continued on Page A7
Suburbs Tilted Georgia to Biden, But Senate Battle Is New Game By ASTEAD W. HERNDON
MICHELLE GUSTAFSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
A cardboard cutout of Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the window of a clothing store in Wilmington, Del.
With New President, All Eyes on Wilmington By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
WILMINGTON, Del. — The hometown of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has long wrestled with its image problem. Namely, it does not have one. If people could find Wilmington on a map — and many couldn’t — they thought of it as a convenient pit stop along the Northeast Corridor, which was dominated by far larger, more important, more colorful places. It is a city lacking a well-known culinary dish, histori-
INTERNATIONAL A9-10
Looking Back on Violence Quebec is grappling with how to remember the separatist-led 1970 “October crisis.” PAGE A10
‘A Little Mystique’ for a Little Business Hub cal event, professional sports team or even a particular catchphrase. And yet, against dubious odds not unlike those that Mr. Biden overcame in reaching the presidency after three tries, Wilmington appears determined to ride
the Biden wave to long-elusive glory. “Usually, nobody pays attention to us, and now we are on the news every night!” exclaimed Karen Kegelman of the Delaware Historical Society, whose first memorable encounter with Mr. Biden dates back to when he spoke at her high school graduation. She is 53. The president-elect has transformed the city into a federal-government-in-waiting. He delivers Continued on Page A17
DECATUR, Ga. — President Trump bet his re-election on a very specific vision of the American suburb: a 2020 edition of Mayfield from “Leave It to Beaver” in which residents are white, resent minorities, and prioritize their economic well-being over all other concerns. The bet fell far short. Mr. Trump lost ground with suburban voters across the country. And particularly in Georgia, where rapidly changing demographics have made it the most racially diverse political battleground in the country, his pitch has been at odds with reality. From the inner suburbs surrounding Atlanta and extending to the traditionally conservative exurbs, Democrats benefited from two big changes: Black, Latino and Asian residents moving into formerly white communities and an increase in the number of
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8
BUSINESS B1-6
A Deadlier Second Wave
Drones as First Responders
In the European Union, the number of daily deaths from the coronavirus exceeded 4,000 on Nov. 24, a horrifying new record. PAGE A5
In Chula Vista, Calif., flying drones with artificial intelligence are helping police in their investigations while also presenting new civil rights questions about citizen privacy. PAGE B1
Making Room on Campus College officials say they are using pandemic lessons from the fall to bring more students back. PAGE A8 NATIONAL A12-17
SPORTSMONDAY D1-6
Crossover Vote a Puzzle For Two Democrats white, college-educated moderates and conservatives who have soured on Mr. Trump. Those factors helped Presidentelect Joseph R. Biden Jr. become the first Democrat to win Georgia since 1992. And Senate runoff elections in January will test whether those Biden voters backed his agenda or simply sought to remove a uniquely divisive incumbent. Though Mr. Trump is not on the ballot next month, he is very much involved in the race and has not moderated his message despite his chastening at the ballot box. The hope is, to some degree, that the pitch that fell short with suburban voters last month will work when Democratic control of the Continued on Page A14
ARTS C1-6
A Champion, and a Guide
Signs of a Movie Revolution
Heartening Performances
In a year of loss, the death of Rafer Johnson hit extra hard, Kurt Streeter writes. Sports of The Times. PAGE D1
The stunning release move by Warner Bros. shows that the Netflix model is winning. The entertainment industry may be changed forever. PAGE B3
Serious new plays always face big challenges, never more so than now, but “The Wolves,” above, and “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” offer hope. PAGE C1
A Last-Ditch Brexit Attempt
Muddying the Georgia Waters
Beginning the Next Act
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union’s president are facing a Dec. 31 deadline for a deal. PAGE A9
Republican officials argue the president’s actions have eroded the public trust in the election process. PAGE A14
Andre Iguodala, 36, is on the back end of his N.B.A. career, but he’s hitting his stride in the tech world. PAGE D1
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19
Farhad Manjoo
PAGE A19
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Venezuelan Government Expected to Tighten Grip in Election
Business & Finance nvestors are piling into wagers on industrial metals, betting that coronavirus vaccines and stimulus programs will drive a boom in manufacturing activity as part of a global economic revival. A1
Airbnb plans to boost the proposed price range of its initial public offering, giving it a valuation of as much as $42 billion. B1 Exxon faces the threat of a proxy fight from an activist investor with a sustainability bent that wants the energy giant to act faster to remake itself. B1 Google is deciding whether to impose severe penalties on IAC over what the search giant concluded were deceptive marketing practices. B1 A government watchdog found no wrongdoing in the process that created a nowhalted U.S. loan to Kodak to make drug ingredients for the Covid-19 response. A5 Chick-fil-A sued major poultry producers, accusing them of price-fixing that the chain says led to inflated prices for chicken purchases. B6
World-Wide Trump’s public and private musings about running again in 2024 are scrambling the calculus for the large field of fellow Republicans considering bids. A1 Lawmakers expect to pass a one-week spending bill soon that would keep the government funded through Dec. 18 and buy more time for talks on a long-term funding measure and virus relief. A2 Biden plans to nominate California Attorney General Becerra to lead Health and Human Services and Rochelle Walensky as CDC chief. A4 Presidents of struggling U.S. colleges are reacting to the pandemic by unilaterally cutting programs, firing professors and gutting tenure. A3 A U.S. panel concluded that exposure to directed energy was the most likely cause of medical symptoms experienced by diplomats posted in Cuba and China. A3 Two papers report promising results from studies of experimental therapies, including Crispr gene editing, for sickle-cell disease. A3 Venezuela’s regime staged congressional elections that are expected to give Maduro complete control of all levers of power. A8
JOURNAL REPORT Investing in Funds: The battle over buybacks. R1-8 CONTENTS Arts in Review... A13 Business News....... B3 Crossword.............. A14 Heard on Street... B10 Markets............... B9-10 Opinion.............. A15-17
Outlook....................... A2 Personal Journal A11-12 Sports....................... A14 Technology............... B4 U.S. News............. A2-6 Weather................... A14 World News....... A8-9
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Recovery Hopes Bolster Metals Prices Investors bet on rise in manufacturing, helped by coronavirus vaccines and stimulus spending BY AMRITH RAMKUMAR AND JOE WALLACE
TURNOUT: Voters line up at a polling station in Caracas on Sunday in Venezuela’s legislative elections. Many opposition leaders urged a boycott of the vote, which is expected to give President Nicolás Maduro control of the National Assembly. A8
Before Zappos Ex-CEO Died: A Spiral of Alcohol and Drugs About two weeks before Zappos.com Inc. co-founder Tony Hsieh died from injuries in a November house fire, one of his closest friends in Las Vegas got a phone call. By Kirsten Grind, James R. Hagerty and Katherine Sayre “Tony is in trouble,” the caller told Philip Plastina, the founder of an electronic dance music group that frequently performed at Mr. Hsieh’s parties and live events over the
GOP Field In Limbo As Trump Eyes 2024 BY ALEX LEARY AND CATHERINE LUCEY WASHINGTON—President Trump’s public and private musings about running again in 2024 are scrambling the calculus for the large field of fellow Republicans considering bids. Most hopefuls have been quick to show deference. But it is unclear whether Mr. Trump, who refuses to concede his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, will follow through, and rivals either way will likely seek ways to remain viable. Prospective GOP candidates don’t want to risk alienating Mr. Trump’s base by appearing to push him aside, but they also don’t want to be left unprepared if he decides not to run. “For the last 20 years, everyone who has run for president has always started off pretending like they weren’t. You can still do that with the possibility of Trump running again,” said Republican strategist Todd Harris. The 2024 election, he added, “could be the first time loyalty to Trump and political ambition are put on a collision course.” Mr. Trump—who managed to get more than 74 million Please turn to page A4 Pompeo set to begin new chapter in Kansas................... A4 Georgia rejects Trump’s call to reverse result...................... A5
Investors are piling into wagers on industrial metals like copper and nickel, betting that coronavirus vaccines and stimulus programs will drive a boom in manufacturing activity as part of a global economic resurgence. Prices for copper have risen to their highest level in almost eight years. Iron ore, the main ingredient of steel, is one of the best-performing assets in 2020. Other raw materials, such as aluminum and zinc, have added roughly 15% since the end of September and 40% or more since mid-May. And shares of metals producers, including Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and Century Aluminum Co., are on a tear, climbing alongside other stocks closely tied to economic growth. Industrial metals are the building blocks of construction, key to making everything from houses to electric cars. Their prices are particularly sensitive to manufacturing activity in China because the country accounts for roughly half of global demand for copper and other materials. The faster-than-expected recovery there has sparked a reversal in prices, which had languished Please turn to page A6
past decade. Because of the pandemic, Mr. Plastina hadn’t seen Mr. Hsieh since the lauded tech executive relocated from Las Vegas to Park City, Utah, earlier this year. The caller asked Mr. Plastina to go to Park City right away in hopes he could help pull Mr. Hsieh out of what the caller described as escapist tendencies, including increasing drug and alcohol abuse. Mr. Plastina said he texted two phone numbers he had for Mr. Hsieh and sent several
emails but received no response. Mr. Plastina never reached his friend. Mr. Hsieh, 46 years old, died on Nov. 27, nine days after firefighters were called to a home in New London, Conn., where he was staying. The Connecticut medical examiner has ruled the death an accident. The fire department is investigating the fire’s cause. Many questions remain about the specific circumstances of his death. Close friends now say it was the culmination of a more than six-
Sweden Hit by Surge in Cases
Pandemic Hastens Wave Of Fuel-Refinery Closures
Voluntary approach failed to halt spread of virus. A6 Confirmed daily Covid-19 deaths, seven-day rolling average 6 per million people
U.S.
5
Sweden
BY DAVID WINNING AND REBECCA ELLIOTT A decade ago, Australia was home to seven refineries. Now, it has four. Soon, it could have just one. Covid-19 is accelerating a rash of global refinery shutdowns in the world’s richest economies. Companies from energy giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC to Australian fuel company Ampol Ltd. are closing facilities or considering doing so as they reckon with anemic fuel demand and growing competition from newer, more efficient fuel-making facilities in
4 3 2 Denmark Norway Finland
1 0 –1 Sept. Oct.
Nov. Dec.
Note: Data as of Dec. 5. Negative numbers account for corrections in data. Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering
Mount Everest Is Getting An Altitude Adjustment i
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month downward spiral. The entrepreneur brought online shoe-shopping to the masses as a co-founder of Zappos and wrote a bestselling book on company culture, “Delivering Happiness.” This year, he struggled, the friends say. In August, he retired as chief executive of Zappos, which he had run for more than a decade after selling it to Amazon.com Inc. for more than $1 billion. Mr. Hsieh spoke often about partying as a central feature Please turn to page A10
Asia and the Middle East. Eleven refineries from the U.S. to Japan have said this year that they intended to close. Three have announced partial shutdowns, and at least an additional five are on the chopping block, according to analytics firm IHS Markit. The thinning out is part of a global shift in fuel-making power away from wealthier countries, where demand is in long-term decline and there are many older, smaller refineries. Newer, larger facilities in countries such as China generally are able to produce fuels for less, benefiting from growing
KATHMANDU, Nepal—How tall is Mount Everest? Until now, it depended on whom you asked. China said it was 29,017 feet. Nepal said it was a little taller, at 29,028 feet. The countries have closed that 11-foot gap and reached an agreement. The world’s tallest peak this week will get a new, unified official height
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Nepal and China, which straddle peak, will give it a new, unified height measure BY ERIC BELLMAN AND KRISHNA POKHAREL
regional markets and shipping their products overseas. More than 1.7 million barrels a day of refining capacity in countries such as the U.S. and Japan has disappeared or is poised to do so in 2020 and 2021, as China, India and the Middle East add more than 2.2 million barrels a day of fuel-making capability, according to the International Energy Agency. In comparison, 2.2 million barrels a day of refining caPlease turn to page A8
from the two nations it straddles. After yearslong surveys, China and Nepal will announce the peak’s stature Tuesday, Susheel Dangol, the man in charge of Nepal’s Everest-measurement project, said Sunday. “The challenge for us was to prove we could do it,” he said. Measuring Everest has always been a challenge, taxing the latest surveying technolPlease turn to page A10
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Covid-19 is accelerating a rash of global refinery shutdowns in the world’s richest economies, part of a global shift in fuel-making power. A1
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