..

INTERNATIONAL EDITION | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

FREEWHEELINGROLLING PARTIESHIT THE STREETSPAGE 6 | WORLD

FAKE PUNKANARCHY SELLS.FORGERY, TOO.PAGE 10 | FASHION

DEJECTED IN BARCELONAWHEN PITY FEELS WORSETHAN A HUMBLING LOSSPAGE 16 | SPORTS

ern Germany. “She gave us a roof overour heads, and she gave a future to ourchildren. We love her like a mother.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel is steppingdown after her replacement is chosenfollowing Germany’s Sept. 26 election.Her decision to welcome more than amillion refugees from Syria, Iraq, Af-ghanistan and elsewhere in 2015 and2016 stands as perhaps the most conse-

Hibaja Maai gave birth three days afterarriving in Germany.

She had fled the bombs that destroyedher home in Syria and crossed the blackwaters of the Mediterranean on a rick-ety boat with her three young children.In Greece, a doctor urged her to stayput, but she pressed on, through Mace-donia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria.Only after she had crossed the borderinto Bavaria did she relax and almostimmediately go into labor.

“It’s a girl,” the doctor said when hehanded her the newborn bundle.

There was no question in Ms. Maai’smind what her daughter’s name wouldbe.

“We are calling her Angela,” she toldher husband, who had fled six monthsearlier and was reunited with his familytwo days before little Angela’s birth onFeb. 1, 2016.

“Angela Merkel saved our lives,” Ms.Maai said in a recent interview in hernew hometown, Wülfrath, in northwest-

quential moment of her 16 years inpower.

It changed Europe, changed Ger-many and above all changed the lives ofthose seeking refuge, a debt acknowl-edged by families who named their new-born children after her in gratitude.

The chancellor has no children of herown. But in different corners of Ger-many, there are now 5- and 6-year-old

girls (and some boys) who carry varia-tions of her name — Angela, Angie,Merkel and even Angela Merkel. Howmany is impossible to say. The New YorkTimes has identified nine, but socialworkers suggest there could be farmore, each of them now calling Ger-many home.

“She will only eat German food!” Ms.Maai said of little Angela, now 5.

The fall of 2015 was an extraordinarymoment of compassion and redemptionfor the country that committed the Holo-caust. Many Germans call it their “fallfairy tale.” But it also set off years of pop-ulist blowback, emboldening illiberalleaders like Prime Minister Viktor Or-ban of Hungary and catapulting a far-right party into Germany’s own Parlia-ment for the first time since World WarII.

Today, European border guards areusing force against migrants. Refugeecamps linger in squalor. And Europeanleaders pay Turkey and Libya to stopthose in need from attempting the jour-ney at all. During the chaotic withdraw-al from Afghanistan, a chorus of Euro-peans was quick to assert that refugeeswould not be welcome on the continent.

“There are two stories here: One is asuccess story, and one is a story of terri-ble failure,” said Gerald Knaus, thefounding chairman of the European Sta-bility Initiative, who informally advised GERMANY, PAGE 4

Angela Al Abdi, on the slide, one of the children named for Chancellor Angela Merkel, playing in Wülfrath, Germany. She was born just after her mother’s arrival in Germany.LENA MUCHA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A ‘guardian angel’ to migrants

A refugee held a picture of Ms. Merkel at a train station in Munich in 2015. The chancel-lor’s welcoming of one million refugees set off years of populist blowback in Europe.

CHRISTOF STACHE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

WÜLFRATH, GERMANY

Refugees in Germanyname their children Angela, and even Merkel

BY KATRIN BENNHOLD

“I’m not a criminal mastermind,” ColsonWhitehead said.

It was an overcast morning in August,and we were walking along 125th Streetin Manhattan, where his new novel,“Harlem Shuffle,” is set. He was describ-ing the challenges of plotting a scenewhere criminals break into the safe de-posit boxes at the Hotel Theresa, an ele-gant mecca for Black celebrities, ath-letes and artists in the 1960s, and makeoff with piles of jewelry.

“It’s nerve-racking, like a real heist,”Whitehead said. “You have to plan it,and then, does it work? What are theholes in the scheme?”

“Harlem Shuffle,” which Doubleday

released last week, is his 10th book andhis first crime novel, and perhaps themost surprising thing is that it took himthis long to write one. Its hero is RayCarney, a furniture salesman whodreams of ascending to Harlem’s uppermiddle class and plays the role of a“fence,” selling stolen items for his delin-quent cousin Freddy and other un-savory associates. Carney is in denialabout serving as a middleman betweenthe criminal and straight realms, but af-ter Freddy ropes him into the jewelrytheft, he becomes the architect of moreambitious schemes aimed at some of themost powerful people in New York City.

Whitehead stopped at the corner ofMorningside Avenue, the location ofCarney’s shop in the novel. (“This usedto be a fried chicken joint,” he said, point-ing out the M&G Diner sign still hangingabove what is now a men’s clothing bou-tique.) When Carney expands his store,he adds a second entrance that goes di-WHITEHEAD, PAGE 2

Colson Whitehead’s new book, “Harlem Shuffle,” allowed him to explore the world in away that’s “not tied to these terrible systems of capitalism and institutional racism.”

JASMINE CLARKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘Can I do a heist novel?Yeah, sure. Why not?’Colson Whitehead, winnerof back-to-back Pulitzers,reinvents himself, again

BY ALEXANDRA ALTER

The New York Times publishes opinionfrom a wide range of perspectives inhopes of promoting constructive debateabout consequential questions.

Already grappling with divisions in hisown country over vaccine mandatesand questions about the ethics and effi-cacy of booster shots, President Biden isfacing another front of discord: a splitamong world leaders over how to eradi-cate the coronavirus globally, as thehighly infectious Delta variant leaves atrail of death in its wake.

At a virtual summit on Wednesday,while the annual United Nations Gen-eral Assembly meeting is underway, Mr.Biden will try to persuade other vac-cine-producing countries to balancetheir domestic needs with a renewed fo-cus on manufacturing and distributingdoses to poor nations in desperate needof them.

Covax, the United Nations-backedvaccine program, is so far behind sched-ule that not even 10 percent of the popu-lation in poor nations — and less than 4percent of Africa’s population — is fullyvaccinated, experts said. Millions ofhealth care workers around the worldhave not had shots.

The push, which White House officialssay seeks to instill urgency in vaccine di-plomacy, will test Mr. Biden’s doctrine offurthering American interests by build-ing global coalitions. Coming on theheels of the United States’ withdrawalfrom Afghanistan last month, whichdrew condemnation from allies and ad-versaries alike, the effort to rally worldleaders will be closely watched by publichealth experts and advocates who sayMr. Biden is not living up to his pledgesto make the United States the “arsenalof vaccines” for the world.

“This is one of the most moral ques-tions of our time,” Representative RosaDeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, saidlast week. “We cannot let the momentpass. And the United States can recap-ture its leadership role by taking onwhat is one of the greatest humanitariancauses ever — and we need to bring thispandemic to an end.”

The landscape is even more challeng-ing now than when Covax was created inApril 2020. Some nations in Asia haveimposed tariffs and other trade restric-tions on Covid-19 vaccines, slowing theirdelivery. India, home to the world’s larg-est vaccine maker, has banned coronavi-rus vaccine exports since April.

At the same time, the Biden adminis-tration is preparing to offer boostershots to millions of already vaccinatedAmericans, despite criticism fromWorld Health Organization officials andother experts who say the doses shouldgo to low- and lower-middle-income VACCINE, PAGE 4

U.S. hopesto acceleratevaccine aidworldwideWASHINGTON

U.N.-backed program lagsin providing shots to thepeople of poor countries

BY LARA JAKESAND SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

The digital scourge known as ran-somware — in which hackers shut downelectronic systems until a ransom ispaid — is worse than ever. Over the pastfew months, these attacks have leakedsensitive government data, thwartedthe operations of hundreds of busi-nesses and even temporarily shut downone of America’s biggest oil pipelines.The newest cybergang on the street —Groove, a motley crew of criminals thathas already leaked 500,000 privatepasswords — has taken to threateningPresident Biden directly. (It’s likely, ofcourse, to be sheer bluster.)

To combat the ransomware problem,the Biden administration has so fartaken a two-prong approach: concerteddiplomacy with nations harboring

cybercriminals andexpanded defensivecapabilities at home.These are criticallyimportant efforts.But to really addressthe issue, the admin-istration must de-velop an offensivestrategy, too — andfight back.

Diplomacy withRussia, even if itsucceeds, won’t besufficient. Despite

repeated requests from the Biden ad-ministration, there is no evidence thatPresident Vladimir Putin of Russia hastaken any action to put pressure onransomware criminals operating withinRussian borders. Instead, after a briefhiatus in August, REvil, the Russian-speaking group that claimed responsi-bility for this summer’s attacks on nu-merous American businesses, hasbrought its servers back online.

Although the most potent ran-somware groups are believed to beoperating from Russia, other countries,including North Korea and Iran, are alsomajor players, and cybercrime fromthese nations is even more worrisome.America has significantly less diplomat-ic leverage over North Korea and Iranthan it does over Russia. Both NorthKorea and Iran are already subject toextensive U.S. sanctions, so gentlyasking, or even sternly insisting, thatthey stop ransomware groups simplywon’t work.

Purely defensive strategies will alsofall short. Cybersecurity expertise isexpensive and in high demand in theUnited States. It is unrealistic to expectthat every American hospital, school,fire department and small business candefend itself against highly sophis-ticated criminals. The task is too big.

The worldis being heldfor ransomDmitri Alperovitch

OPINION

Businessesattacked.Data stolen.Miles ofpipeline shutdown. Thescourge ofransomwareis worse thanever.

ALPEROVITCH, PAGE 14

DIOR GRAND SOIR JARDINS DE NUIT

DIO

R.C

OM

Y(1J85IC*KKOKKR( +%!"!$!@!{

Issue NumberNo. 43,083Andorra € 5.00

Antilles € 4.50Austria € 4.00Belgium € 4.00Bos. & Herz. KM 5.80Britain £ 2.60

Cameroon CFA 3000Croatia KN 24.00Cyprus € 3.40Czech Rep CZK 115Denmark Dkr 37Estonia € 4.00

Finland € 4.00France € 4.00Gabon CFA 3000Germany € 4.00Greece € 3.40Hungary HUF 1100

Israel NIS 14.00/Friday 27.50

Israel / Eilat NIS 12.00/ Friday 23.50

Italy € 3.80Ivory Coast CFA 3000

Sweden Skr 50Switzerland CHF 5.20Syria US$ 3.00The Netherlands € 4.00Tunisia Din 8.00Turkey TL 22

Poland Zl 19Portugal € 3.90Republic of Ireland ¤� 3.80Serbia Din 300Slovenia € 3.40Spain € 3.90

Luxembourg € 4.00Malta € 3.80Montenegro € 3.40Morocco MAD 35Norway Nkr 40Oman OMR 1.50

NEWSSTAND PRICES

U.A.E. AED 15.00United States Military

(Europe) $ 2.30