DAY TWO As Mark Zuckerberg again faced House questioning, calls for oversight of social media technology mounted. PAGE B4 VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,930 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+=!,!&!#!{ YOLA, Nigeria — The list had more than 200 names. Martha James. Grace Paul. Rebecca Jo- seph. Mary Ali. Ruth Kolo. And so many others. It took Nigerian officials agonizing weeks to publish the names of all the stu- dents Boko Haram kidnapped from a boarding school in the village of Chibok four years ago, on the night of April 14. Once they did, the numbers were stag- gering. The list quickly circulated among the grieving parents searching for their daughters, some setting out on motor- bikes to confront the Islamist militants who had stormed the school, loaded the girls into trucks and hauled them away at gunpoint. Soldiers used the list, too, as they combed the countryside for the missing students, marching through the forest, dispatching jets and enlisting the help of foreign militaries. Negotiators checked the names as they bartered with militants for the girls’ re- lease. And the list became an inspiration for protesters hundreds of miles away in the capital, who kept marching for the girls’ return, day after day. “As I began to read each name, my re- solve strengthened,” said Oby Ezekwesili, a former education minister who led pro- tests. “They were not just statistics. These were real human beings.” Far away in America, France, South Ko- Rahab Ibrahim, one of the abducted schoolgirls, now attends a private university with other freed students. The Girls Brought Back ‘Bring back our girls,’ the world demanded when Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 Nigerian students in 2014. These are some of the lucky ones. By DIONNE SEARCEY Photographs by ADAM FERGUSON Continued on Page A11 On Texas’ border with Mexico, National Guard troops in combat fatigues try to to stand out and blend in. PAGE A16 NATIONAL A16-23 Extra Eyes and Ears WASHINGTON — Fifteen months after Republicans took full control of Washington, the man long seen as central to the party’s future is abandoning one of the most powerful jobs in the capital, imperiling the G.O.P. grip on the House and signaling that the political convulsions of the Trump era are taking a grave toll on the right months before Elec- tion Day. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s retirement announcement on Wednesday blindsided many House Republican candidates and their campaign leaders who were counting on him to lead them to victory in the November midterm elections. His decision to leave Congress at 48 sent an undeniably pessimistic message to Republi- cans: that stable, steady leader- ship is lacking in their deeply di- vided party as they head into a campaign season defined by the whims of President Trump. And for a White House bracing for a potential Democratic im- peachment inquiry, the ominous impact of Mr. Ryan’s retirement was unmistakable. He has made it more difficult to stave off Demo- crats’ taking control of the House, where Republicans currently hold a 23-seat majority. As many as 50 House Republi- can seats are at risk in competi- RYAN WILL RETIRE, SCATTERING HOPES OF G.O.P. FOR 2018 LOSS OF TOP FUND-RAISER Announcement Imperils Republicans’ Shaky Grip on House By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS Continued on Page A20 House Speaker Paul D. Ryan TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON — President Trump made clear on Wednesday that missiles “will be coming” at Syria at any moment, telegraph- ing a military operation as he has previously said he would never do. But the real suspense re- mained — how many missiles, for how long, at what targets and to what end. The strike that Mr. Trump was preparing as retaliation for a sus- pected chemical attack carries all sorts of perils that worry military planners and diplomats alike. A fresh intervention in one of the most combustible battlegrounds on the planet — one already crawl- ing with Syrian, Russian, Iranian, American, Turkish and Kurdish forces — could easily bring unin- tended consequences. The more expansive the strike, officials and experts said, the greater the risk of accidental cas- ualties that could deepen the con- flict with Russia or Iran. Yet a more restrained operation might not inflict enough damage on the government of President Bashar al-Assad to change his calcula- tions. If Mr. Trump goes beyond mis- siles and authorizes the use of manned aircraft even from out- side Syrian airspace, they face the dangers of a modern air defense system provided by Moscow. And Mr. Trump’s warning, along with the delay in acting, has given the Syrians as well as their Russian and Iranian allies days to prepare. Two Defense Department offi- cials said the Syrian military had moved some of its key aircraft to a Russian base, assuming the Americans would be reluctant to strike there. Russian command- ers have also moved some of their military forces in anticipation of American action. “You want to hit military tar- gets, military equipment as much as possible, because it’s the Syrian military that’s carrying out these atrocities,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “You want to make sure that you deliver a message and that you degrade their military capabili- ties.” At the same time, he added, “the Risks Abound With Any Plan To Strike Syria Diplomats and Military Fear Consequences This article is by Peter Baker, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Helene Cooper. Continued on Page A8 DIVISIONS Paul D. Ryan took the helm to heal a fractured G.O.P. He will leave with its fault lines clearly visible. PAGE A21 HOW IT HAPPENED Details are being pieced together about a suspected chemical attack on a Syrian town. PAGE A8 When I downloaded a copy of my Facebook data last week, I didn’t expect to see much. My profile is sparse, I rarely post any- thing on the site, and I seldom click on ads. (I’m what some call a Face- book “lurker.”) But when I opened my file, it was like opening Pandora’s box. With a few clicks, I learned that about 500 advertisers — many that I had never heard of, like Bad Dad, a motorcycle parts store, and Space Jesus, an elec- tronica band — had my contact information, which could include my email address, phone number and full name. Facebook also had my entire phone book, including the number to ring my apart- ment buzzer. The social network had even kept a permanent record of the roughly 100 people I had deleted from my friends list over the last 14 years, including my exes. There was so much that Face- book knew about me — more than I wanted to know. But after looking at the totality of what the Silicon Valley company had obtained about yours truly, I decided to try to better under- stand how and why my data was collected and stored. I also sought to find out how much of my data could be removed. How Facebook collects and treats personal information was central this week when Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, answered questions in Congress about data privacy and his responsibilities to users. During his testimony, Mr. Zuckerberg repeatedly said Facebook has a tool for down- loading your data that “allows Remember Those Friends You Deleted Long Ago? Facebook Does Continued on Page A22 BRIAN X. CHEN TECH FIX A woman who said Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her when she was 17 gave her account at his retrial. PAGE A23 ‘You Remember, Don’t You?’ Camden’s troubled schools are surging after a state takeover, but Paymon Rouhanifard is moving on. PAGE A25 NEW YORK A24-27 A Superintendent Steps Down Mike Pompeo undertakes a charm offensive before a Senate vote to be- come secretary of state. PAGE A10 INTERNATIONAL A4-15 Pompeo Makes the Rounds While saying President Trump is right to highlight China’s offenses, many trade experts say his planned tariffs would backfire. PAGE B7 BUSINESS DAY B1-8 Taking a Dim View of Tariffs The Trump administration is pushing for a quick ending to the trade talks, but it has not ceded much ground. PAGE B1 Wrinkle in Nafta Talks A raid on the International Biathlon Union’s headquarters serves to escalate the Russian doping scandal. PAGE B12 SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-12 Raid Widens Doping Scandal A rumor that Anna Wintour would leave Vogue took flight; Condé Nast denied it. But it’s still buzzing. PAGE D1 THURSDAY STYLES D1-8 Imagining a World After Anna At home with the couple who ran one of SoHo’s most chic stores and offered blowtorched Eames chairs. PAGE D1 Men of No Markdowns Many artists apply to spend their gold- en years at Casa Verdi, a Milan man- sion filled with instruments. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 A Harmonious Retirement A book by the TV news host Alex Wagner blends memoir and journalism to trace her roots and see just who she is. PAGE C1 Digging Into Her Family’s Past Nicholas Kristof PAGE A31 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31 President Trump has long had ties to the nation’s major media players. But his connections with the country’s largest tabloid pub- lisher, American Media Inc., run deeper than most. A former top executive of Mr. Trump’s casino business sits on A.M.I.’s four-member board of di- rectors, and an adviser joined the media company after the election. The company’s chairman, David J. Pecker, is a close friend of the president’s. And in the Trump era, A.M.I.’s flagship tabloid, The National En- quirer, has taken a decidedly poli- tical turn, regularly devoting cov- ers to the president’s triumphs and travails with articles head- lined “Trump’s Plan for World Peace!” and “Proof! FBI Plot to Impeach Trump!” Since the early stages of his campaign in 2015, Mr. Trump, his lawyer Michael D. Cohen and Mr. Pecker have strategized about protecting him and lashing out at his political enemies. Now the tabloid company has been drawn into a sweeping fed- eral investigation of Mr. Cohen’s activities, including efforts to head off potentially damaging stories about Mr. Trump during his run for the White House. In one instance, The Enquirer bought but did not publish a story about an alleged extramarital re- lationship years earlier with the Headline a Tabloid Didn’t Run Catches the Investigators’ Eyes This article is by Jim Rutenberg, Emily Steel and Mike McIntire. Continued on Page A19 Investigators are looking into whether Michael D. Cohen tried to quash negative stories about his client, Donald J. Trump. Page A18. Behind the F.B.I. Raid The crash of a military transport plane about 15 miles southwest of the capital, Algiers, was the nation’s deadliest. A handful of people survived. PAGE A4 Algerian Air Disaster Kills 257 Late Edition Today, morning clouds, showers, af- ternoon sunshine, milder, high 60. Tonight, partly cloudy, low 55. To- morrow, sunshine and clouds, high 76. Weather map is on Page A26. $3.00