C M Y K Nxxx,2021-07-15,A,001,Bs-4C,E1

U(D54G1D)y+?!}!&!$!#

Mimi Swartz PAGE A21

OPINION A20-21

BRUSSELS — In what may be aseminal moment in the global ef-fort to fight climate change, Eu-rope on Wednesday challengedthe rest of the world by laying outan ambitious blueprint to pivotaway from fossil fuels over thenext nine years, a plan that alsohas the potential to set off globaltrade disputes.

The most radical, and possiblycontentious, proposal would im-pose tariffs on certain importsfrom countries with less stringentclimate-protection rules. The pro-posals also include eliminatingthe sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars in just 14 years, andraising the price of using fossil fu-els.

“Our current fossil fuel econ-omy has reached its limit,” thepresident of the European Com-

mission, Ursula von der Leyen,said at a news conference in Brus-sels.

The effort, pushed by the Euro-pean Commission, the E.U.’s bu-reaucracy, makes the 27-countrybloc’s proposal the most ag-gressive and detailed plan in theworld to reach a carbon-neutraleconomy by 2050, proposing bigchanges during this decade. Toforce the issue, Brussels has com-mitted in law to reducing its emis-sions of greenhouse gases 55 per-cent by 2030 compared with 1990levels.

The negotiations over the legis-lative package will be closelyscrutinized well beyond Europeas a glimpse into whether and howa diverse set of countries, withdemocratically elected leadersfrom across the political spec-trum, can pivot an economy away

EUROPE LAYS OUTSTRINGENT PLANIN CLIMATE FIGHT

RAISING THE GLOBAL BAR

Curbing Fossil Fuels UseWith Penalties for

Noncompliance

By STEVEN ERLANGERand SOMINI SENGUPTA

Wind turbines near a coal-fired power plant in Germany.

INA FASSBENDER/A.F.P. — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A10

As Covid raged, so did the coun-try’s other epidemic. Drug over-dose deaths rose nearly 30 per-cent in 2020 to a record 93,000, ac-cording to preliminary statisticsreleased Wednesday by the Cen-ters for Disease Control and Pre-vention. It’s the largest single-year increase recorded.

The deaths rose in every statebut two, South Dakota and NewHampshire, with pronounced in-creases in the South and West.

Several grim records were set:the most drug overdose deaths ina year; the most deaths from opi-oid overdoses; the most overdose

deaths from stimulants like meth-amphetamine; the most deathsfrom the deadly class of syntheticopioids known as fentanyls.

“It’s huge, it’s historic, it’s un-heard-of, unprecedented and areal shame,” said Daniel Cic-carone, a professor of medicine atthe University of California, SanFrancisco, who studies heroinmarkets. “It’s a complete shame.”

In recent years, annual drugoverdose deaths had alreadyeclipsed the peak yearly deathsfrom car crashes, gun violence orthe AIDS epidemic.

Drug Deaths Surged to Record As Pandemic Ravaged Country

By JOSH KATZ and MARGOT SANGER-KATZ

Continued on Page A18

He has not been able to speaksince 2003, when he was para-lyzed at age 20 by a severe strokeafter a terrible car crash.

Now, in a scientific milestone,researchers have tapped into thespeech areas of his brain — allow-ing him to produce comprehensi-ble words and sentences simplyby trying to say them. When theman, known by his nickname,Pancho, tries to speak, electrodesimplanted in his brain transmitsignals to a computer that dis-plays them on the screen.

His first recognizable sentence,researchers said, was, “My familyis outside.”

The achievement, published onWednesday in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine, could even-tually help many patients withconditions that steal their abilityto talk.

“This is farther than we’ve everimagined we could go,” said Mela-nie Fried-Oken, a professor ofneurology and pediatrics at Ore-gon Health & Science University,who was not involved in theproject.

Three years ago, when Pancho,now 38, agreed to work with neu-roscience researchers, they wereunsure if his brain had even re-tained the mechanisms forspeech.

“That part of his brain mighthave been dormant, and we justdidn’t know if it would ever reallywake up in order for him to speakagain,” said Dr. Edward Chang,chairman of neurological surgeryat the University of California, SanFrancisco, who led the research.

The team implanted a rectangu-lar sheet of 128 electrodes, de-signed to detect signals from

speech-related sensory and motorprocesses linked to the mouth,lips, jaw, tongue and larynx. In 50sessions over 81 weeks, they con-nected the implant to a computerby a cable attached to a port inPancho’s head, and asked him totry to say words from a list of 50common ones he helped suggest,including “hungry,” “music” and“computer.”

As he did, electrodes transmit-ted signals through a form of arti-ficial intelligence that tried to rec-ognize the intended words.

“Our system translates thebrain activity that would havenormally controlled his vocal tractdirectly into words and sen-tences,” said David Moses, a post-doctoral engineer who developed

He Couldn’t Speak. Implants Turned His Thoughts Into Words.By PAM BELLUCK

Pancho, left, working with Dr. Edward Chang at the University of California, San Francisco.MIKE KAI CHEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A16

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden and congressional Demo-crats vowed on Wednesday topush through a $3.5 trillion budgetblueprint to vastly expand socialand environmental programs byextending the reach of educationand health care, taxing the richand tackling the warming of theplanet.

The legislation is far from pas-sage, but top Democrats haveagreed on working to include sev-eral far-reaching details. They in-clude universal prekindergartenfor all 3- and 4-year-olds, twoyears of free community college,clean energy requirements forutilities and lower prescriptiondrug prices. Medicare benefitswould be expanded, and greencards would be extended to someundocumented immigrants.

At a closed-door luncheon in theCapitol, Mr. Biden rallied Demo-crats and the independentsaligned with them to embrace theplan, which would require everysingle one of their votes to moveforward over united Republicanopposition. But several moderatelawmakers who are crucial to theplan’s success had yet to saywhether they would accept theproposal.

Mr. Biden’s message was “beunified, strong, big and coura-geous,” Senator Richard Blumen-thal of Connecticut said.

Senate Democratic leadershave said they aim to pass boththe budget blueprint and a nar-rower, bipartisan infrastructureplan that is still being written be-fore the August recess. That willbe a politically tricky task in anevenly split Senate. The narrowlydivided House would also have topass the blueprint before bothchambers tackle the details.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi em-braced the deal. “This budgetagreement is a victory for theAmerican people, making his-

Democrats SetBudget OutlineAt $3.5 Trillion

Vow to Expand Socialand Climate Agenda

This article is by Jonathan Weis-man, Emily Cochrane and JimTankersley.

Continued on Page A13

Even as many Americans cele-brate the apparent waning of thepandemic, the thrum of concernover the so-called Delta variantgrows steadily louder.

The variant, the most conta-gious version yet of the coronavi-rus, accounts for more than half ofnew infections in the UnitedStates, federal health officials re-ported this month. The spread ofthe variant has prompted a vig-orous new vaccination push fromthe Biden administration, and fed-eral officials are planning to sendmedical teams to communitiesfacing outbreaks that now seeminevitable.

Infections, hospitalizations anddeaths are rising swiftly in somestates with low vaccination rateslike Arkansas, Missouri, Texasand Nevada, and are beginning toshow small upticks in all of theothers. The curves have also be-gun shifting upward in New YorkCity, and the percentage of pos-

itive tests in the city has doubledin the past few weeks to just over 1percent.

Nationwide, the numbers re-main at some of the lowest levelssince the beginning of the pan-demic, but are once again slowlytrending upward, prompting a de-bate about when booster shotsmight be needed to protect Ameri-cans.

The virus has also set off largeoutbreaks across the globe, fromJapan and Australia to Indonesiaand South Africa, forcing manycountries to reimpose stringentrestrictions on social activity.Even in places like Britain, wherewide swaths of the population areimmunized, the Delta variant hasoutpaced vaccination efforts,pushing the goal of herd immunity

further out of reach and postpon-ing an end to the pandemic.

But scientists say that even ifthe numbers continue to risethrough the fall, Americans areunlikely to revisit the horrors oflast winter, or to require boostershots in the foreseeable future.

If Britain’s experience is a har-binger of what’s to come, the over-all number of infections may riseas the Delta variant spreadsthrough the United States. Buthospitalizations and deaths arelikely to be much lower than theywere following the arrival of pre-vious variants, because the aver-age age of those infected hasshifted downward and young peo-ple tend to have mild symptoms.

As important, vaccines are ef-fective against the Delta variantand already provide a bulwarkagainst its spread.

“I think the United States hasvaccinated itself out of a nationalcoordinated surge, even thoughwe do expect cases pretty mucheverywhere,” said Bill Hanage, anepidemiologist at the Harvard

Delta Variant Widens Gulf Between ‘2 Americas’By APOORVA MANDAVILLIand BENJAMIN MUELLER

Different Paths Seen for the Vaccinated and the Unvaccinated

Continued on Page A14

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — TheAfghan way of war in 2021 comesdown to this: a watermelon ven-dor on a sweltering city street, agovernment Humvee at the frontline just 30 feet away, and Talibanfighters lurking unseen on theother side of the road.

When the shooting starts, thevendor makes himself scarce,leaving his melons on the tableand hoping for the best. When itstops, selling resumes, tocustomers now all too rare.

“I don’t have a choice. I’ve got tosell the melons,” said the vendor,Abdel Alim, speaking to New YorkTimes journalists while he kept aneye on a lane within Kunduz cityfrom which he said Taliban hademerged. “Most people have left,”he said. “There is fighting all thetime.”

The Taliban are pressing in onall sides of Kunduz, a provincialcapital of roughly 374,000 in Af-ghanistan’s north, and severalother provincial capitals as well,as the Afghan government’s warwith the Taliban enters a new anddangerous phase. For weeks, theinsurgents have captured vulner-able districts across the country’snorth, sometimes without evenfiring a shot. And on Wednesday,the Taliban said they had capturedan important border crossing withPakistan, at Spin Boldak — the

Afghan CityFeels Taliban

Tighten ViseBy ADAM NOSSITERand NAJIM RAHIM

Families displaced by fighting took refuge at the Bibi Amina school in Kunduz, a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan.JIM HUYLEBROEK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

THE COSTS The E.U. climate goalsmay be painful for some busi-nesses and consumers. PAGE B1

CARBON TARIFF Democrats haveagreed to a plan to tax importsfrom polluting nations. PAGE A10

After months on Zoom, fashion-con-scious men in Europe are out and aboutagain in high style. PAGE D5

THURSDAY STYLES D1-6

Free to Flaunt It AgainA report blamed the agency for delaysthat it said let the former gymnasticsdoctor keep abusing victims. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-19

F.B.I. Faulted in Nassar Case

The International Swimming Federa-tion is rethinking a ban on a cap de-signed to better fit Black hair. PAGE D3

More Inclusion in the PoolA voting rights debate reflects a widerfight between cities and rural areas overwhat it means to be Texan. PAGE A12

The Divided Heart of Texas

Ryuichi Sakamoto, now battling cancer,discusses a new work, about dreamsand humanity’s struggles. PAGE C1

A Determined Artist

In China, Guo Gangtang’s cross-coun-try, decades-long search for his soninspired a movie. Now, there’s an end-ing fit for Hollywood. PAGE A8

Reunited After 24 Years

Operation Allies Refuge will begin inlate July to support the airlift of Afghannationals who aided the U.S., Bidenadministration officials said. PAGE A7

U.S. Help for Afghans on Way

Executives have clashed over Crowd-Tangle, a Facebook-owned data toolthat revealed users’ high engagementwith right-wing media sources. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Inside Facebook’s Data WarsOn what will most likely be her last tripto Washington before leaving office,Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germanywill meet with President Biden. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Merkel to Take a Final Bow

“It can’t help but feel different,” saidAlanna Rizzo, one of five women whowill call an Orioles-Rays game. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B7-10

M.L.B.’s First All-Female Crew

Prices are up “notably,” the Fed chairtold House lawmakers, but signaled thegains would be temporary. PAGE B1

Inflation, Then Moderation

James Gunn talks about the tweets thatgot him temporarily fired, and his cross-over to the DC franchise. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Back in the Director’s Chair

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,120 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2021

Today, partly to mostly sunny, verywarm, humid, high 89. Tonight,mostly clear, low 75. Tomorrow,partly sunny, hot, thunderstorms,high 90. Weather map, Page B12.

$3.00