absolute monster leaves splintered path of havocthis article is by richard fausset , sheri fink and...

VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,113 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018

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ANKARA, Turkey — PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkeyhas long cast himself as a cham-pion of the Arab Spring uprisingsand the political Islamists whoonce seemed poised to ride themto power.

Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman of Saudi Arabia anchorsthe opposite camp in an ideolog-ical battle raging across the Mid-dle East: the anti-Islamist strong-men who quashed the revolts.

The two leaders, each the headof a major regional power, have

until now kept their relations cor-dial in the interest of stability. Butover the past week, tensions be-tween them have erupted over thedisappearance of JamalKhashoggi, a Saudi dissident andWashington Post columnist whovanished after entering the SaudiConsulate in Istanbul nine daysago.

Mr. Erdogan has repeatedlychallenged Saudi Arabia to ex-

plain Mr. Khashoggi’s disappear-ance, while Turkish officials saythey have video and audio evi-dence proving he was killed, andhave unleashed a stream of leakssuggesting that the royal court or-dered it. The crown prince and hisspokesmen have insisted, withoutproviding evidence, that Mr.Khashoggi left the consulatefreely, professing that they, too,are worried about him.

Saudi Mystery Raises Stakes for Muslim LeadersBy DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

and BEN HUBBARDTensions Rise Between

Prince and Erdogan

Continued on Page A8

President Trump responded tofalling stock prices on Thursdayby continuing to throw rocks atthe Federal Reserve, which he hasdescribed as “crazy,” “loco,” “go-ing wild” and “out of control” forslowly raising interest ratesagainst the backdrop of a boomingeconomy.

No other modern president haspublicly attacked the Fed withsuch venom or frequency. Indeed,some scholars said the only closehistorical parallel was with Presi-dent Andrew Jackson, who cam-paigned successfully in the 1830s

to close the Fed’s predecessor, theSecond Bank of the United States.

Mr. Trump’s pointed remarksreflect the high political stakesless than a month before midtermelections that have been cast byhis political opponents as a refer-endum on his presidency. Mr.Trump has been riding the econ-omy hard, bragging about job cre-ation, tax cuts and reduced federalregulation, and claiming credit for

the rise of the stock market. Nowthat the market has lost 5 percentof its value in the last week, Mr.Trump is insisting someone else isto blame.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed at 2,728.37 onThursday, down 2.06 percent.

In fact, despite the stock mar-ket’s plunge, the American econ-omy continues to grow, which iswhat is prompting the Fed to raise

Stocks Swooning, Trump Takes It Out on the FedBy BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

Continued on Page A15

Public Attacks SharpenAhead of Midterms

SAN FRANCISCO — WhenChristine Blasey Ford testified be-fore Congress last month aboutJustice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s al-leged sexual assault, a websitecalled Right Wing News spranginto action on Facebook.

The conservative site, run bythe blogger John Hawkins, hadcreated a series of Facebookpages and accounts over the lastyear under many names, accord-ing to Facebook.

After Dr. Blasey testified, RightWing News posted several falsestories about her — including thesuggestion that her lawyers werebeing bribed by Democrats — andthen used the network of Face-book pages and accounts to sharethe pieces so that they prolifer-ated online quickly, social mediaresearchers said.

The result was a real-timespreading of disinformationstarted by Americans, for Ameri-cans.

What Right Wing News did waspart of a shift in the flow of onlinedisinformation, falsehoods meantto mislead and inflame. In 2016,before the presidential election,state-backed Russian operativesexploited Facebook and Twitter tosway voters in the United Stateswith divisive messages. Now,weeks before the midterm elec-tions on Nov. 6, such influencecampaigns are increasingly a do-mestic phenomenon fomented byAmericans on the left and theright.

“There are now well-developednetworks of Americans targetingother Americans with purpose-fully designed manipulations,”said Molly McKew, an informationwarfare researcher at the NewMedia Frontier, a firm that studiessocial media.

Politics has always involvedshadings of the truth via whispercampaigns, direct-mail opera-tions and negative ads borderingon untrue. What is different thistime is how domestic sites are em-ulating the Russian strategy of2016 by aggressively creating net-works of Facebook pages and ac-counts — many of them fake —that make it appear as if the ideasthey are promoting enjoy wide-spread popularity, researcherssaid. The activity is also happen-ing on Twitter, they said.

The shift toward domestic dis-information raises potential freespeech issues when Facebook andTwitter find and curtail such ac-counts that originate in the United

Made in U.S.:Untruths InfestSocial Websites

The Right and the LeftTry Russia’s Methods

By SHEERA FRENKEL

Continued on Page A12

MEXICO BEACH, Fla. — Thescope of the devastation broughtby Hurricane Michael came intosobering focus on Thursday asrescue workers searched a ruinedlandscape of splintered homes,toppled trees and upended vehi-cles that stretched across much ofthe Florida Panhandle.

The seaside community of Mex-ico Beach, where the storm madelandfall, was a flattened wreck.Across the small sportfishingtown, piers and docks were de-stroyed, fishing boats were piledcrazily on shore and townspeoplewandered the streets in horrorand wonder.

“These were all block andstucco houses — gone,” said TomBailey, the former mayor. “Themother of all bombs doesn’t doany more damage than this.”

And while Mexico Beach was

the hardest hit, much of the Flor-ida Panhandle was a landscape ofcollapsed buildings and compro-mised roads and water systems.Rescue teams evacuated hospi-tals, searched rubble for survivorsand dropped emergency suppliesfrom helicopters.

The storm’s rage spread acrosssix states, and well more than amillion homes and businesseswere without electricity on Thurs-day as Michael made its way sea-ward as a tropical storm. At leastsix people were confirmed dead,and officials appeared resignedthat the toll would rise. Local gov-ernments imposed dusk-to-dawncurfews and told residents to boiltheir water. The American RedCross said about 7,800 peopleslept in shelters on Wednesdaynight.

U.S. Highway 98 in Mexico Beach, Fla., was in ruins on Thursday after Hurricane Michael made landfall. The storm continued on through Georgia and the Carolinas.ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘Absolute Monster’ Leaves Splintered Path of Havoc

Continued on Page A16

Florida Is Left Reeling as StormSlashes Through Southeast

By RICHARD FAUSSET and ALAN BLINDERPANAMA CITY, Fla. — BayMedical Center, a 300-bed hospitalin the center of town, was a tumul-tuous mess. Staff members werefrantically working on Thursdayto evacuate patients just as new

ones showed up at the door.Hurricane Michael had strafed

the place, blowing out windowsand stripping some of the build-ings in the sprawling complexdown to their metal girders. Sign-age was strewn in the streets.Doctors, nurses and workers wan-dered outside, some crying, somelooking for cell service.

The governor had announcedthat all of the patients in the hospi-tal were to be evacuated, whichwas expected to take 48 hours.And other residents of the rav-aged city were still showing upasking for medical care only to beturned away. A man named WainHall, 23, was standing with his bi-cycle, screaming at a securityguard by the boarded-up entranceto the emergency room.

“I got a busted head, and so yourefuse me medical attentionhere?” he said.

He lifted his ball cap to revealmatted, blood-soaked hair. “I havelost everything and everyonekeeps turning us away,” he said.

As Michael bore down and thenpassed, some hospitals in the re-gion closed entirely, and othersevacuated their patients, but keptstaff in place to run overwhelmedemergency rooms. In Florida, fourhospitals and 11 nursing facilitieswere closed, according to the Fed-eral Emergency ManagementAgency. Panama City has five hos-

Chaos and Anguish at Ravaged Hospitals

Continued on Page A17

This article is by Richard Fausset,Sheri Fink and Matthew Haag.

Parts of Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Fla., were unsafe.ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Soyuz craft experienced a problemminutes after liftoff, en route to theInternational Space Station. An Ameri-can astronaut and a Russian cosmonautmade a safe return. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Rocket Fails With 2 AboardMoMA’s show on Charles White tracesAfrican-American history. Above, “FiveGreat American Negroes.” PAGE C15

WEEKEND ARTS C1-26

A Politically Vigilant Artist

A new bridge project in Croatia beingbuilt over the Adriatic Sea by a state-owned Chinese company is a test casefor the European Union. PAGE A4

Bridge Gets China Into Europe

Five doctors were charged on Thursdaywith taking more than $5 million inreturn for prescribing millions of oxy-codone pills. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A20-25

Opioid Charges for DoctorsPaul Krugman PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Working to keep the House, Republicanleaders are building a firewall around afew dozen purple districts, and cuttingoff lawmakers who appear unable towin their races. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-19

Tactical Retreat for G.O.P.

It will soon be possible to identify theDNA of 90 percent of European Ameri-cans through cousins in genealogydatabases. PAGE A19

DNA Sites Ending Anonymity

Battling persistent protests, CuadrillaResources is trying to produce shalegas in northwest England after its firsteffort triggered small tremors. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-8

Fracking in the U.K., Take 2The Brewers built their success on aroster of castoffs, leading the NationalLeague in victories. PAGE B9

SPORTSFRIDAY B9-12

96 Wins, and Still Underdogs

MARKET ANXIETY After a nearlydecade-long bull market, invest-ors see stocks dive. PAGE B1

FRAYING TIES Businesses andmedia figures reconsider workingwith Saudi Arabia. PAGE A8

Late EditionToday, clouds breaking for somesunshine, cooler, less humid, high62. Tonight, partly cloudy, chilly, low47. Tomorrow, spotty showers, high57. Weather map is on Page A24.

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