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The United States remains the mostadvanced cyber superpower on earth,but the hard truth is that it is also theworld’s most targeted country. Andhackers are exploiting its hubris. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

America the VulnerableSquabbling among brothers and sistersis to be expected, experts say. Parents,here are some suggestions for limitingthe screaming matches. PAGE 6

AT HOME

Soothe the Savage SiblingsAs the walls of the ancient Iraqi citycontinue to crumble, preservationistsare racing to save its past. PAGE 9

INTERNATIONAL 9-12

Babylon’s Battle Against Time

Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters are calledupon whenever energetic music withjoy and gravitas is required. PAGE 6

ARTS & LEISURE

Masters of Rock, and CatharsisPresident Biden wants the vice presi-dent, Kamala Harris, to have a majorrole. But for now he does not intend toassign her a specific portfolio. PAGE 13

NATIONAL 13-22

Harris, Front and CenterDolly Parton’s working women’s an-them has been reframed for a websitebuilder’s Super Bowl ad. Working “5 to9” — song of the side hustle. PAGE 1

‘9 to 5’ for the Gig Economy

Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody’spandemic-era posts led to unlikelysocial media stardom. PAGE 5

A Marriage Thriving Online

The shorter, colder days can be adowner, but some people experienceserious seasonal depression. PAGE 4

More Than the Winter Blues

The pandemic has pushed many wom-en with families to the brink. They’retired and want someone to listen.

SPECIAL SECTION

Who Comforts the Mothers?

Widespread poverty is helping to fuelan illegal market for vital organs, aportal to new misery for Afghanistan’smost vulnerable. PAGE 11

Kidney Trade Preys on Afghans

Star players have criticized the league’shandling of the pandemic, especiallyplans for the All-Star Game. PAGE 29

SPORTS 26-29

Boos in the N.B.A. Over Safety

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–20%

Smaller drop Bigger drop

Lower Higher

–40% –60% –80%

Percent drop in average new cases from winter peak

Half 1x 2x 3x

Average daily new cases compared with previous peak

U.S. Coronavirus Cases Are Down but Eclipse Spring and Summer PeaksNew coronavirus cases are down 50 percent since the highest peak, on Jan. 8. But

some parts of the country are still reporting new cases at a rate higher than during the worst peak they experienced before Oct. 1 last year. Article and chart, Page 7.

Note: Changes are based on7-day rolling average of daily cases.

Source: New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies. | Note: All change figures use 7-day rolling averages. Winter peak is the highest daily case average in each county after Oct. 1. Previous peak is the highest daily case average in each county before Oct. 1. Some parts of the country peaked in the spring, summer or both. THE NEW YORK TIMES

At first, the offer seemed gener-ous. Erica Sklar was in a homelessshelter and needed a more stableplace to live. Victor Rivera, whooversaw a network of shelters, in-cluding the one where she wasstaying, said he had a solution: aspare apartment for her at hishome in the Bronx.

But after Ms. Sklar moved in,she said, she realized that Mr. Ri-vera, whose nonprofit organiza-tion is one of the largest operatorsof homeless shelters in New York,had other intentions. In Decem-ber 2016, he asked to see a leakingceiling in her bedroom, thenturned off the lights, pushed heragainst a wall and began fondlingher, according to Ms. Sklar andtwo friends in whom she confided.

He demanded she give him oralsex, suggesting he would evict herif she refused, she said. Desperateto hold on to her apartment, shecomplied.

Ms. Sklar is one of 10 womenwho said they had endured as-sault or unwanted sexual atten-tion from Mr. Rivera, The New

York Times found. Even as somewomen have sounded warningsabout Mr. Rivera — including twowho were given payments by hisorganization that ensured their si-lence — his power and influencehave only grown during NewYork’s worst homeless crisis indecades.

His organization, the BronxParent Housing Network, has re-ceived more than $274 millionfrom the city to run homeless shel-ters and provide services justsince 2017. The pandemic has in-tensified Mr. Rivera’s importance:As the coronavirus swept throughthe homeless population, the citygave his group $10 million to pro-vide rooms where infected peoplecould isolate and recover.

Women reported Mr. Rivera’sbehavior to a state agency, a cityhotline and, in one instance, thepolice. But he maintained hisperch atop the organization.

One employee of the Bronx Par-ent Housing Network said thatMr. Rivera, the chief executive,forced her to give him oral sex in2016 and then fired her, accordingto police records, interviews andother documents. In 2018, anotheremployee accused Mr. Rivera ofgroping her and whispering sexu-al comments in her ear. After bothwomen separately complained toa state human rights agency, theBronx Parent Housing Networkpaid them a total of $175,000 in set-tlements that prohibited themfrom speaking publicly abouttheir allegations, according to in-terviews and records reviewed byThe Times.

Five of the women were livingin Mr. Rivera’s homeless shelters,or had recently left, when Mr. Ri-vera approached them for sex,they said.

Bronx Shelters’ Boss RoseDespite Claims of Abuse

City Gave $274 Million to Nonprofit Ledby Man Accused of Sexual Predation

By AMY JULIA HARRIS

Victor Rivera at the BronxParent Housing Network.

JASON COHEN/BRONX TIMES

Continued on Page 18

Football fans know what oldquarterbacks look like as theyfade away. It is not like Tom Brady.

Old quarterbacks hobblearound the field, propped on stiffhips and achy knees, their armsragged and their faces craggy.They look like survivors, elevatedin myth but diminished in stature.

Vaults and minds are filled withclips of Johnny Unitas, Joe Na-math, Brett Favre and all theother creaky quarterbacks whotempted the fates of time and tra-dition, shunning retirement untildeep — maybe too deep — intoHall-of-Fame careers.

When John Elway played his

last game, winning a Super Bowl,he was 38. Peyton Manning didthe same at 39. Rigid and worn,older quarterbacks usually moveas if they might be unable to tie thelaces on their cleats.

Then there is Brady, a cyborg.He is 43. Does he have a wrinkleon his face? Is his arm bionic? Arehis joints made of rubber? Heprobably can tie his own laceswhile doing downward dog.

“You look at this guy and think,‘Wow, it’s absolutely incredible,”said Gordon Lithgow, a professorand vice president of the Buck In-stitute for Research on Aging inNovato, Calif. “Is he actually agingat a slower rate than other peo-ple?”

That is the question footballfans are asking ahead of Sunday’sSuper Bowl LV between Brady’sTampa Bay Buccaneers and theKansas City Chiefs.

The answer appears to be yes,at least in football terms. The hardquestion is why.

“There’s no way that elite ath-letes are immune to aging,” Lith-gow said. “You can see quite a pre-cipitous drop-off in performance— even though they are wayabove average, it’s still happeningat the same rates.”

Brady, who is in his first seasonwith Tampa Bay after 20 yearswith the New England Patriots,will be the oldest player to partici-

A Super Bowl Sideshow: See the Ageless Man!By JOHN BRANCH

Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady, 43, is the only quarterback to start aSuper Bowl after age 40. He is about to do it for the third time.

MARK LOMOGLIO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page 28

The red balloons rose over ananxious city. They floated by thehundreds above the golden spireof Sule Pagoda in Yangon, thecommercial capital of Myanmar,and drifted over an avenue where,more than a dozen years ago, sol-diers shot citizens marchingpeacefully for democracy.

The balloons hovering overYangon were released by activ-ists, expressing their hope thatthe elected leaders detained in amilitary coup d’état would be freeagain. The color — later pink, afterred balloons sold out — symbol-ized the National League for De-mocracy party, which had, untilMonday, led the civilian govern-ment with Daw Aung San Suu Kyiat its head.

By Saturday, balloons were notenough, and the familiar footfall ofprotesters resounded in the city.As armed police officers stood be-hind riot shields, marchers calledfor “democracy to rise, militarydictatorship to fall” and sang pro-test anthems that once broughtprison sentences.

With the generals’ abruptseizure of power, the people ofMyanmar are again in the mili-tary’s cross hairs — and increas-ingly shut off from the world. Al-though the putsch, led by SeniorGen. Min Aung Hlaing, the armychief, was itself bloodless, the mili-tary has resorted to familiar tac-tics in the days since: dozens of ar-rests, beatings by mysterious

Return of Military’s Old TacticsMeets Resistance in Myanmar

By HANNAH BEECH

Continued on Page 12

LOS ANGELES — President Bi-den’s first immigration crisis hasalready begun as thousands offamilies have surged toward thesouthwestern border in recentweeks, propelled by expectationsof a friendlier reception and by achange in Mexican policy thatmakes it harder for the UnitedStates to expel some of the mi-grants.

More than 1,000 people who hadbeen detained after crossing havebeen released into the country inrecent days in a swift reversalfrom the Trump administration’snear shutdown of the border.Many more people are gatheringon the Mexican side, aggravatingconditions there and testingAmerica’s ability and willingnessto admit migrants during a pan-demic.

New families every day havebeen collecting in Mexican bordertowns, sleeping in the streets, un-der bridges and in dry ditches, ac-cording to lawyers and aid groupsworking along the border. Thispast Thursday in Mexicali, acrossfrom Calexico, Calif., desperatemigrants could be seen trying toscale a border fence. A migrantcamp in Matamoros, Mexico, justacross a bridge from Texas, hasboomed to 1,000 people over thepast few weeks.

To guard against the coronavi-rus, health authorities in SanDiego have arranged housing forhundreds of arriving migrants in adowntown high-rise hotel, wherethey are being quarantined before

being allowed to join family orfriends in the interior of theUnited States.

“There has been a significantincrease in asylum seekers arriv-ing, and we know that the num-bers are only going to keep risingdramatically,” said Kate Clark,senior director for immigrationservices at Jewish Family Serviceof San Diego, which has been pro-viding the families clothes andpersonal hygiene items and help-ing them arrange onward travel.

The surge poses the first majortest of Mr. Biden’s pledge to adopta more compassionate policyalong the border with Mexico.

The prospect of large numbersof migrants entering the countryduring a pandemic could create astrong public backlash for Mr. Bi-den as his administration takessteps to undo the strict policiesput into place by his predecessor.

A New Administration, and a New Border CrisisBy MIRIAM JORDAN

and MAX RIVLIN-NADLERThousands Hoping for

Looser Policy Arrive

Continued on Page 14

In Washington’s respectablecircles, Michael T. Flynn, the for-mer national security adviser, is adiscredited and dishonored ex-general, a once-esteemed militaryintelligence officer who went offthe rails ideologically and thenwas fired a mere 24 days into theTrump administration for lying tothe F.B.I. about contacts with theRussian ambassador.

As if he cared.Where others see disgrace, Mr.

Flynn, 62, has found redemption.Recast by former President Don-ald J. Trump’s most ardent sup-porters as a MAGA martyr, Mr.Flynn has embraced his role asthe man who spent four years un-justly ensnared in the Russia in-vestigation.

He was one of the most extremevoices in Mr. Trump’s 77-day pushto overturn the election, a cam-paign that will be under scrutinyas the former president’s secondimpeachment trial gets underwaythis coming week. Mr. Flynn wentso far as to suggest using the mili-tary to rerun the vote in crucialbattleground states. At one point,Mr. Trump even floated the idea ofbringing Mr. Flynn back into theadministration, as chief of staff or

Flynn Is Back,Selling Anger

And T-ShirtsBy MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Continued on Page 20

As the pandemic enters its sec-ond year, millions of renters arestruggling with a loss of incomeand with the insecurity of notknowing how long they will have ahome. Their savings depleted,they are running up credit carddebt to make the rent, or accruingmonths of overdue payments.Families are moving in together,offsetting the cost of housing byfinding others to share it.

The nation has a plague of hous-ing instability that was festeringlong before Covid-19, and the pan-demic’s economic toll has onlymade it worse. Now the financialscars are deepening and the dis-ruptions to family life growingmore severe, leaving a legacy thatwill remain long after mass vacci-nations.

Even before last year, about 11million households — one in fourU.S. renters — were spendingmore than half their pretax in-come on housing, and overcrowd-ing was on the rise. By one esti-mate, for every 100 very low-in-come households, only 36 afford-able rentals are available.

Now the pandemic is adding tothe pressure. A study by the Fed-eral Reserve Bank of Philadelphiashowed that tenants who lost jobsin the pandemic had amassed $11billion in rental arrears, while abroader measure by Moody’s An-alytics, which includes all delin-quent renters, estimated that as ofJanuary they owed $53 billion inback rent, utilities and late fees.Other surveys show that familiesare increasingly pessimistic aboutmaking their next month’s rent,and are cutting back on food andother essentials to pay bills.

On Friday, as monthly jobs dataprovided new evidence of astalling recovery, President Biden

AS JOBS DRY UP,TENANTS PACK INAND FALL BEHIND

A HOUSING EMERGENCY

Affordable Rentals Rare— Eviction Bans Give

Only Fleeting Aid

By CONOR DOUGHERTY

Continued on Page 6

Michael Patrick F. Smith PAGE 4SUNDAY REVIEW

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,962 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2021

Today, breezy, colder, snow, 3 to 6inches, slippery travel, high 33. To-night, turning clear, brisk, low 19. To-morrow, sunshine, patchy clouds,high 28. Weather map, Page 16.

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