VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,936 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+#!.!@!#!{ Superman has a birthday coming up. Celebrate with a look back at some memorable issues. PAGE C2 ARTS C1-7 At 80, Still Locomotive-Strong A jet engine exploded on a flight from New York to Dallas, leaving one pas- senger dead. PAGE A16 NATIONAL A11-16 Deadly Accident in Midair A computer failure told people filing federal taxes online to “Come back on Dec. 31, 9999.” It was fixed, and taxpay- ers got one more day in 2018. PAGE A16 NATIONAL Death and Taxes Still Certain Our classical music editor and the chief pop music critic take stock of Kendrick Lamar’s win for “DAMN.” PAGE C1 Analyzing a Rapper’s Pulitzer Susan E. Rice PAGE A23 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 The United States undercut China’s technology ambitions on Tuesday, advancing a new rule that would limit the ability of Chi- nese telecommunications compa- nies to sell their products in this country. The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to move forward with a plan that would prevent federally subsi- dized telecommunications carri- ers from using suppliers deemed to pose a risk to American na- tional security. The decision takes direct aim at Huawei, which makes telecommunications net- work equipment and smart- phones, and its main Chinese ri- val, ZTE, sending a message that the government doesn’t trust them. A day earlier, the government barred ZTE from using compo- nents made in the United States, saying the company had failed to punish employees who violated American sanctions against North Korea and Iran. The moves intensify a testy fight between China and the United States for high-tech su- premacy. Although tensions have simmered for years, the two eco- nomic powerhouses are threat- ening a global trade war as they look to protect their most ad- vanced industries. Long bedeviled by political con- cerns about its ties to the Chinese government, Huawei (pro- nounced “HWA-way”) has spent the better part of the last decade trying to sell its equipment and phones in the United States. The company made a big push in the United States with a new line of smartphones this year. But that effort was derailed when AT&T, appearing to bow to gov- ernment security concerns, walked away from a deal to sell the devices. Since then, Huawei has sig- naled that its political battles in Washington may be all but lost. The company has been dialing Continued on Page A7 U.S. Limiting Chinese Sales In Tech Battle New F.C.C. Rule Cites Risks to Security This article is by Raymond Zhong, Paul Mozur and Jack Nicas. BIDNIJA, Malta — On Oct. 16, at 1:41 a.m., a cellphone SIM card was activated in this rural Mal- tese village. It was the moment, investigators say, when a remote- controlled bomb packed with TNT was armed and placed under the driver’s seat of this tiny country’s most famous, and most provoca- tive, journalist. The next afternoon, the journal- ist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, left her house and walked toward her gray Peugeot 108, intent on re- gaining access to her bank ac- count. Her assets had been frozen as part of a libel case, one of 47 suits pending against her. This one stemmed from an article she had published on her blog about Malta’s economy minister, Chris- tian Cardona, reportedly visiting a brothel in Germany while trav- eling on official business. Her son Matthew heard a pow- erful explosion and felt the win- dows of the house shake. He raced outside and sprinted barefoot down the long, unpaved drive from their home to the main road, where a column of black smoke churned upward into the autumn sky. Shards of glass and plastic were everywhere, and, most grue- somely, chunks of flesh were strewn on the road, all accompa- nied by the droning blare of a car horn. He struggled to maintain hope that it was not his mother’s car, un- A Journalist’s Fiery Death, And a Muted Hunt for Truth By NICHOLAS KULISH Continued on Page A6 WASHINGTON — President Trump was watching television on Sunday when he saw Nikki R. Ha- ley, his ambassador to the United Nations, announce that he would impose fresh sanctions on Russia. The president grew angry, accord- ing to an official informed about the moment. As far as he was con- cerned, he had decided no such thing. It was not the first time Mr. Trump has yelled at the television over something he saw Ms. Haley saying. This time, however, the di- vergence has spilled into public in a remarkable display of discord that stems not just from compet- ing views of Russia but from larger questions of political ambi- tion, jealousy, resentment and loy- alty. The rift erupted into open con- flict on Tuesday when a White House official blamed Ms. Haley’s statement about sanctions on “momentary confusion.” That prompted her to fire back, saying that she did not “get confused.” The public disagreement embar- rassed Ms. Haley and reinforced questions about Mr. Trump’s for- eign policy — and who speaks for Confused? No, Haley Retorts To Trump Aide This article is by Peter Baker, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman. Continued on Page A8 SAN FRANCISCO — Sailors ar- riving in San Francisco in the 19th century used two giant redwood trees perched on a hill to help guide their ships into the bay. The redwoods were felled for their lumber at around the time of the gold rush, but San Francisco now has a new beacon: Salesforce Tower, the tallest office building in the West. Clustered around the 1,070-foot tower are a collection of high rises built on the soft soil and sand on the edge of the bay. They repre- sent a bold symbol of a new San Francisco, but also a potential danger for a city that sits precari- ously on unstable, earthquake- prone ground. San Francisco lives with the certainty that the Big One will come. But the city is also putting up taller and taller buildings clus- tered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe hous- ing shortage. Now those compet- ing pressures have prompted an anxious rethinking of building regulations. Experts are sending this message: The building code does not protect cities from earth- quakes nearly as much as you might think. It’s been over a century — Wednesday marks the 112th anni- versary — since the last devastat- ing earthquake and subsequent inferno razed San Francisco. Wit- nesses on the morning of April 18, 1906, described the city’s streets as rising and falling like a ribbon carried by the wind. The violent shaking ignited a fire that lasted three days, de- stroying 500 city blocks and 28,000 buildings. Half of the population of around 400,000 was made homeless. Many were forced to flee the city. California has strict building re- quirements to protect schools and hospitals from a major earth- quake. But not skyscrapers. A five-story building has the same strength requirements as a 50- story building. Yet skyscrapers cast a much broader shadow of risk across a city and their collapse or impair- ment could cause a cascade of consequences. How safe are San Francisco’s skyscrapers? Even the engineers who design them can’t provide ex- act answers. Earthquakes are too unpredictable. And too few major cities have been tested by major temblors. “The profession does the best job we can to model and predict, but there are a number of uncer- tainties,” said Ron Hamburger, one of the country’s leading struc- tural engineers. “We don’t have as many records, particularly for large magnitude earthquakes, as we would like.” California has made significant strides in earthquake prepared- ness over the past century. Free- way overpasses, bridges and some municipal buildings have been strengthened. Many Califor- nians live in single-family wood frame homes, which have been found to hold up relatively well during earthquakes. But until recently, high-rise buildings were not a focus of San Francisco’s seismic safety. Newer high rises across Califor- nia, which are typically built around a concrete core, are de- signed using computer modeling. This raises concerns among ex- perts such as Thomas H. Heaton, the director of the Earthquake En- gineering Research Laboratory at the California Institute of Technol- ogy and perhaps the most promi- Waiting for the Big One, Perched on Sandy Soil This article is by Thomas Fuller, Anjali Singhvi and Josh Williams. Developers in San Francisco have been putting up taller buildings, clustered closer together, because of a severe housing shortage. JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES Same California Code, for Buildings of Five Floors or 50 Continued on Page A12 To protect us without overreacting, the issue for legislators is how much the data-driven ecosystem really matters, Eduardo Porter writes. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-7 What Is Facebook Worth to Us? Beijing said it would loosen rules for foreign car and aerospace companies to build factories in China. PAGE B1 China Opens Garage Doors Sarah Sellers was second Monday in the Boston Marathon. On Wednesday, she returns to her job as a nurse. PAGE B8 SPORTSWEDNESDAY B8-12 Amateur Runner, Elite Finish Black Philadelphians say the arrest of two men in a coffee shop is the frustrat- ing reality of everyday life. PAGE A11 Anger, Not Just for Starbucks Iraqi counterterrorism courts are send- ing cooks, medical workers, housewives and others to the gallows. PAGE A10 No Mercy for ISIS Suspects Little-known to the public but prized in the business, the expediter often sets the pace in a restaurant. PAGE D1 FOOD D1-6 Quarterbacking the Kitchen The author Madhur Jaffrey travels to the crop’s ancient home and finds inspi- ration from Andean cooks. PAGE D1 In Praise of Peruvian Potatoes WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump dispatched the C.I.A. director Mike Pompeo to North Korea to meet with its leader, Kim Jong-un, in recent weeks to lay the groundwork for a summit meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump, two people briefed on the secret trip said on Tuesday. Mr. Trump alluded to Mr. Pom- peo’s mission when he said on Tuesday afternoon that the United States was in direct talks with North Korea at “extremely high levels,” and that the White House was looking at five sites for a po- tential meeting of the two leaders. The White House has used in- telligence, rather than diplomatic channels, to communicate with North Korea, ever since last month, when Mr. Trump unex- pectedly accepted Mr. Kim’s invi- tation to meet. Mr. Pompeo, who is awaiting confirmation as secretary of state, has been dealing with North Kore- an representatives through a channel that runs between the C.I.A. and its North Korean coun- terpart, the Reconnaissance Gen- eral Bureau, according to other of- ficials. And he has been in close touch with the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, who American officials said brokered Mr. Kim’s invitation to Mr. Trump. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump also said he would give his blessing to North and South Korea to “discuss the end of the war” when the lead- ers of those countries meet this month, opening the door to a peace treaty that would replace the armistice that halted the Kore- an War in 1953. His statements, which came as he welcomed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan to his ocean- front estate here, were fresh evi- dence of a diplomatic thaw under- way on the Korean Peninsula, and made a once-unthinkable encoun- ter between him and Mr. Kim far more likely. The president did not specify DIRECTOR OF C.I.A. MET WITH LEADER OF NORTH KOREA PREPARATION FOR TALKS Trump Opens the Door to a Treaty Replacing the ’53 Armistice By MARK LANDLER and MATTHEW ROSENBERG Continued on Page A9 The worsening standoff with the West is increasingly isolating Russia and dam- aging its economy. PAGE A10 INTERNATIONAL A4-10 Sanctions Start to Sting Russia Barbara Bush, the widely ad- mired wife of one president and the fiercely loyal mother of an- other, died Tuesday evening at her home in Houston. She was 92. Jim McGrath, a family spokes- man, announced the death in a statement posted to Twitter. On Sunday, the office of her hus- band, former President George Bush, issued a statement saying that after consulting her family and her doctors, Mrs. Bush had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will in- stead focus on comfort care.” The Bushes had celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January, making them the long- est-married couple in presidential history. Mrs. Bush had been hospital- ized with pneumonia in December 2013. She underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer in 2008 and had heart surgery four months later. As the wife of the 41st president and the mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush, Mrs. Bush was only the second woman in Ameri- can history to have a son of hers follow his father to the White House. (Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams, was the first.) Another son, Jeb, the governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomina- tion in 2016. During that campaign, he was repeatedly derided in personal terms by the eventual nominee and now president, Donald J. Trump, prompting Mrs. Bush, who was never shy about express- ing her views, to lash back, sug- First Lady and First Mother Who Charmed With Straight Talk By ENID NEMY BARBARA BUSH, 1925-2018 Barbara Bush with George Bush as he was sworn into office as the 41st president on Jan. 20, 1989. BOB DAUGHERTY/ASSOCIATED PRESS Continued on Page A13 After flirting with rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, President Trump seemed to rebuff the idea for good. Page A8. Against It. For It. Against It. Late Edition Today, partly sunny, breezy, a milder afternoon, high 58. Tonight, becom- ing cloudy, intermittent rain late, low 46. Tomorrow, cloudy, showers, high 54. Weather map, Page C8. $3.00