U(D54G1D)y+%!{!,!?!# PARIS — President Biden’s an- nouncement of a deal to help Aus- tralia deploy nuclear-powered submarines has strained the Western alliance, infuriating France and foreshadowing how the conflicting American and Eu- ropean responses to confrontation with China may redraw the global strategic map. In announcing the deal on Wednesday, Mr. Biden said it was meant to reinforce alliances and update them as strategic priori- ties shift. But in drawing a Pacific ally closer to meet the China chal- lenge, he appears to have alienat- ed an important European one and aggravated already tense re- lations with Beijing. France on Thursday reacted with outrage to the announce- ments that the United States and Britain would help Australia de- velop submarines, and that Aus- tralia was withdrawing from a $66 billion deal to buy French-built submarines. At its heart, the dip- lomatic storm is also a business matter — a loss of revenue for France’s military industry, and a gain for American companies. Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign minister, told Franceinfo radio that the submarine deal was a “unilateral, brutal, unpredict- able decision” by the United States, and he compared the American move to the rash and sudden policy shifts common dur- ing the Trump administration. Underscoring its fury, France canceled a gala scheduled for Fri- day at its embassy in Washington to mark the 240th anniversary of a Revolutionary War battle. “This looks like a new geopoliti- cal order without binding alli- ances,” said Nicole Bacharan, a re- searcher at Sciences Po in Paris. “To confront China, the United States appears to have chosen a different alliance, with the Anglo- Saxon world separate from France.” She predicted a “very hard” period in the old friendship between Paris and Washington. The deal also seemed to be a pivot point in relations with China, which reacted angrily. The Biden U.S. DEFENSE PACT WITH AUSTRALIA ENRAGES FRANCE RIFT OVER CHINA POLICY Nuclear Submarine Sale Raises Stakes in the Pacific Region By ROGER COHEN Continued on Page A10 DEL RIO, Texas — Thousands of migrants were crowded under a bridge outside the border commu- nity of Del Rio on Thursday, part of a massive surge in migration across the Rio Grande this week that has overwhelmed the au- thorities and caused significant delays in processing the arrivals. The U.S. Border Patrol said that more than 9,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti, were being held in a temporary staging area under the Del Rio International Bridge as agents worked as quickly as they could to process them. The temporary camp has grown with staggering speed in recent days, from just a few hundred peo- ple earlier in the week. The au- thorities and city officials said they expected thousands more to cross the ankle-deep river be- tween Mexico and Del Rio in the coming days. The Border Patrol said it would send more agents to the region “to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and or- derly process.” The shaded area under the bridge, the Border Pa- trol said, was to “prevent injuries from heat-related illness” while migrants were waiting to be taken into custody. The scene — of dense crowds sleeping on dirt or milling about in triple-digit heat amid conditions of deteriorating sanitation — was condemned by local officials. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas ordered the state police and the National Guard to assist border agents in Del Rio, saying the federal re- sponse had not been enough to quell the surge in crossings. “The Biden administration is in Surge Leaves 9,000 Migrants Crammed Under a Texas Bridge This article is by James Dobbins, Eileen Sullivan and Edgar Sandoval. Continued on Page A15 Migrants waited near the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas to turn themselves in on Thursday. VERÓNICA G. CÁRDENAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES SAN FRANCISCO — Apple in- troduced a pop-up window for iPhones in April that asks people for their permission to be tracked by different apps. Google recently outlined plans to disable a tracking technology in its Chrome web browser. And Facebook said last month that hundreds of its engineers were working on a new method of showing ads without relying on people’s personal data. The developments may seem like technical tinkering, but they were connected to something big- ger: an intensifying battle over the future of the internet. The struggle has entangled tech ti- tans, upended Madison Avenue and disrupted small businesses. And it heralds a profound shift in how people’s personal informa- tion may be used online, with sweeping implications for the ways that businesses make money digitally. At the center of the tussle is what has been the internet’s lifeblood: advertising. More than 20 years ago, the in- ternet drove an upheaval in the advertising industry. It eviscer- ated newspapers and magazines that had relied on selling classi- fied and print ads, and threatened to dethrone television advertising as the prime way for marketers to reach large audiences. Instead, brands splashed their ads across websites, with their promotions often tailored to peo- ple’s specific interests. Those dig- ital ads powered the growth of Facebook, Google and Twitter, which offered their search and so- cial networking services to people without charge. But in exchange, people were tracked from site to site by technologies such as “cookies,” and their personal data was used to target them with rele- vant marketing. Now that system, which bal- looned into a $350 billion digital ad industry, is being dismantled. Driven by online privacy fears, Apple and Google have started re- vamping the rules around online data collection. Apple, citing the mantra of privacy, has rolled out tools that block marketers from tracking people. Google, which depends on digital ads, is trying to have it both ways by reinventing the system so it can continue aim- ing ads at people without exploit- ing access to their personal data. If personal information is no longer the currency that people give for online content and serv- ices, something else must take its place. Media publishers, app mak- Battle for Users’ Privacy Will Transform Internet By BRIAN X. CHEN Hundreds of Billions at Stake for Tech Titans and Advertisers Continued on Page A20 MURMANSK, Russia — She walked into the cafe wearing a face mask that read, “I’m not afraid, and don’t you be afraid.” A man in a leather jacket followed her in, looked at her as she sat down next to me, then disap- peared. Another man, in a vest and gray cap, waited outside. He trailed us as we walked out. I was interviewing Violetta Grudina, an activist in the Rus- sian Arctic city of Murmansk who is allied with the imprisoned oppo- sition leader Aleksei A. Navalny. She was still recovering from a hunger strike. Now under relent- less surveillance, she confessed to a creeping, numbing desperation. “We are all in a trap — trapped by one tyrant,” Ms. Grudina said. “This stupor that comes from giv- ing everything you possibly can, but nothing changes — it is hard.” Russia is a country in which nothing changes until everything changes. Ahead of the national parliamentary elections this weekend, President Vladimir V. Putin’s rule has reached a new apogee of authoritarianism, coated in a patina of comfortable stability. To many, Mr. Putin re- mains a hero, especially for his as- sertive foreign policy, while those who oppose him are retreating, as they put it, into their own oases or parallel worlds. From Aug. 24 to Sept. 7, the pho- tographer Sergey Ponomarev and Trek in Search Of How Putin Shapes Russia By ANTON TROIANOVSKI Playing on a boat moored outside the bay in Solovki, a holy place to the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a central pillar of support for President Vladimir V. Putin. PHOTOGRAPHS BY SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES A broadcast of Mr. Putin on a screen near Moscow in April. Continued on Page A12 Ibai Llanos is a 26-year-old internet personality who plays video games and streams interviews with some of soc- cer’s biggest names. PAGE B10 SPORTS B9-10 A Shining (Not) Media Star Retired meter-maid trikes are whimisi- cal, not menacing, in the hands of Bay Area collectors. Wheels. PAGE B8 BUSINESS B1-8 Smiles Instead of Tickets A Trump-era appointee charged with scouring the Russia inquiry has accused a prominent cybersecurity lawyer at a Democratic-tied firm of lying to the F.B.I. during a 2016 meeting. PAGE A19 NATIONAL A14-20, 24 Special Counsel Indictment We’ve compiled a formidable list of titles to look for, including a biography of Oscar Wilde and novels from Jonathan Franzen and Anthony Doerr. PAGE C14 WEEKEND ARTS C1-16 Fall Books Preview A measles outbreak and security screenings add to delays in the resettle- ment of thousands of Afghans weeks after their dramatic escape. PAGE A6 INTERNATIONAL A4-13 Stuck in Limbo on U.S. Bases A writer went searching for Asian American history in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada but found few traces of the thousands of Chinese immigrants who had worked there. PAGE A14 A Town Called Chinese Camp Emma Corrin, who has been nominated for an Emmy for playing Diana in “The Crown,” is happy to be handing off the role as it takes a darker turn. PAGE C5 Turning In Her Tiara The critic Roberta Smith focuses on new gallery shows by the artists Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Mickalene Thomas and Lisa Yuskavage. PAGE C10 A New Season of Art The withdrawal from Afghanistan ex- posed the views within the foreign policy establishment, also known as the Blob. Washington Memo. PAGE A6 A Media Moment for ‘the Blob’ The militant group trucked over one million gallons of fuel to Lebanon, flout- ing U.S. sanctions and billing itself as savior to a suffering population. PAGE A8 Hezbollah Fills Void in Lebanon A variety of non-animal food options are becoming available, and more compa- nies want part of the action. PAGE B1 A Growing Appetite for Plants David Brooks PAGE A23 OPINION A22-23 In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker is activating the National Guard to help with the shortage in bus drivers. In North Carolina, legislators are hoping to ease a cafeteria worker shortage by giv- ing districts federal funding to cover signing bonuses for new hires. And some Missouri districts are wiping away some of the re- quirements to become a substi- tute teacher to attract more appli- cants. Across the country, school dis- tricts are desperate to fill jobs. Some are struggling to retain counselors, teachers and princi- pals, but a more urgent need seems to be for employees who have traditionally operated be- hind the scenes — cafeteria work- ers, bus drivers and substitute teachers — according to Chip Slaven, interim director for the National School Boards Associa- tion. Many relatively low-paying in- dustries, like restaurants, are fac- ing worker shortages because of the pandemic. But school districts have for years struggled to recruit and retain workers, according to Mr. Slaven, because of the low pay, sparse benefits and erratic sched- ules. “You really have to look back before the pandemic,” he said. “You’re seeing a problem that was already bad become worse.” The coronavirus has scared away workers who are wary of face-to-face interaction with chil- dren, and the federal govern- ment’s pandemic unemployment benefits, which recently ended, spurred some to wait for better opportunities. The shortages have affected families, already under stress. Since the first day of classes, Me- lissa Minter has driven her three children every morning to middle school and high school in the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio. A severe staffing shortage has forced bus drivers to make multiple trips, turning what should be a 15- minute bus ride into an hour-and- a-half odyssey. Want to Drive A School Bus? You’re Hired. By GIULIA HEYWARD Continued on Page A18 Late Edition VOL. CLXX .... No. 59,184 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 Today, cloudy, seasonable, showers, high 77. Tonight, cloudy, low 68. To- morrow, a mix of clouds and periodic sunshine, warmer, humid, high 82. Weather map appears on Page A24. $3.00