VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,959 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+=!;!,!=!: City buses burst into flames too fre- quently in the Italian capital, where an aging fleet lacks maintenance. PAGE A4 INTERNATIONAL A4-15 Rome’s Buses Are Burning In restaurants, living rooms and librar- ies, women who had largely ignored politics now meet to plot strategy to help Democrats wrest back power. PAGE A16 NATIONAL A16-20 Political? Not Until Recently An insurance tycoon went to prison as part of an effort to tame risky borrowing without hurting the economy. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-6 How China Is Tackling Its Debt A report claims the university has not repaid thousands of workers at its Middle East expansion and has been slow on compliance. PAGE A22 NEW YORK A22-25 N.Y.U. Derided Over Labor Late Edition A show at the Met features vestments from the Vatican, and designs inspired by the Catholic faith. Above, an ensem- ble from Jean Paul Gaultier. PAGE C11 WEEKEND C1-22 At the Met, a Blessing of Cloth WASHINGTON — Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, told colleagues she was close to resigning after President Trump berated her on Wednesday in front of the entire cabinet for what he said was her failure to ad- equately secure the nation’s bor- ders, according to several current and former officials familiar with the episode. Ms. Nielsen, who is a protégée of John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has drafted a resig- nation letter but has not sub- mitted it, according to two of the people. As the head of the Depart- ment of Homeland Security, Ms. Nielsen is in charge of the 20,000 employees who work for Immi- gration and Customs Enforce- ment. Mr. Trump’s anger toward Ms. Nielsen, who was sitting several seats to his left at the meeting, was part of a lengthy tirade in which the president railed at his cabinet about what he said was its lack of progress toward sealing the country’s borders against ille- gal immigrants, according to one person who was present at the meeting. Asked about the heated ex- change at the meeting, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that “the president is committed to fixing our broken immigration system and our po- rous borders.” In a statement, Ms. Nielsen said she intended to “continue to direct the department to do all we can to implement the president’s securi- ty-focused agenda.” She said Mr. Trump was “rightly frustrated that existing loopholes and the lack of congressional action have prevented this administration from fully securing the border.” Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, disputed that Ms. Nielsen had drafted a resignation letter and was close to resigning, calling those assertions “false.” Mr. Trump’s anger about immi- gration has grown in recent weeks, according to several offi- cials. He repeatedly claimed cred- it for the fact that during his first year in office, illegal border cross- ings dropped to their lowest levels in decades. But this year, they have risen again, robbing him of one of his favorite talking points. In remarks to reporters before Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. Trump hinted at the anger that would cause him to erupt once TV cam- eras were led out of the room. “We’ve very much toughened up the border, but the laws are horrible,” Mr. Trump said. “The laws in this country for immigra- tion and illegal immigration are absolutely horrible. And we have to do something about it — not only the wall, which we’re build- ing sections of wall right now.” One person familiar with Mr. Trump’s blowup at the meeting said it was prompted by a discus- A Tirade by Trump, Then a Resignation Letter By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and NICOLE PERLROTH Continued on Page A17 But Homeland Security Chief Didn’t Send It After a Scolding DOHA, Qatar — What do you do when your multibillion-dollar sports network has been stolen? Executives at Qatar’s beIN Sports pondered that question last week as they stared at a bank of screens inside their sprawling headquarters here. On the night of May 2, the network’s main chan- nel, which functions as the ESPN of the Middle East, televised the deciding game of the Champions League semifinal between A.S. Roma and Liverpool. They watched the beIN Sports feed as Liverpool scored to take an early lead. Then they watched the same play 10 seconds later on live coverage from beoutQ, a boot- legging operation seemingly based in Saudi Arabia, whose roots lie in the bitter political dis- pute between Qatar and a coali- tion of countries led by its largest neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That night, like every night for the past few months, 10 beoutQ channels were live, almost all of them screening the ostensibly ex- clusive and very expensive con- tent of beIN, which owns some of the most valuable sports rights in France, Spain and Turkey. The coalition countries have subjected Qatar to a punishing blockade over the past year. Those countries last year accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and criti- cized its relationship with Iran, an ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-As- sad. They enacted an embargo, cut off diplomatic ties and set up the blockade of the energy-rich emirate, closing Qatar’s access to many of the region’s ports and much of its airspace. Qatar has de- An Act of Piracy, Shown Live in the Middle East By TARIQ PANJA An anti-piracy monitoring room at beIN Sports in Doha, Qatar. A hacked feed of the channel has aired throughout Saudi Arabia. OLYA MORVAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A15 JERUSALEM — The tense shadow war between Iran and Is- rael burst into the open early Thursday as Israeli warplanes struck dozens of Iranian military targets inside Syria. It was a furi- ous response to what Israel called an Iranian rocket attack launched from Syrian territory just hours earlier. The cross-border exchanges — the most serious assaults from each side in their face-off over Iran’s presence in Syria — took place a little more than a day after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement. Israel’s defense minister said that Israeli warplanes had de- stroyed “nearly all” of Iran’s mili- tary infrastructure in Syria after Iran launched 20 rockets at Is- raeli-held territory, none reaching their targets. Iran struck shortly after Presi- dent Trump pulled out of the nu- clear agreement, raising specula- tion that it no longer felt con- strained by the possibility that the Americans might scrap the deal if Iran attacked Israel. Israel appeared newly embold- ened as well, partly because of what seemed like extraordinary latitude from Russia, Syria’s most important ally, allowing the Is- raelis to act against Iran’s military assets in Syria. Moscow did not condemn Is- rael’s strikes, as it had in the past, instead calling on Israel and Iran to resolve their differences diplo- matically. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who spent 10 hours with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Wednesday, told his cabinet on Thursday that he had persuaded the Russians to ISRAEL STRIKES MILITARY ASSETS OF IRAN IN SYRIA SHADOW WAR ESCALATES Fighting Erupts a Day After the U.S. Exits a Nuclear Accord By ISABEL KERSHNER and DAVID M. HALBFINGER Continued on Page A8 Missiles seen from Damascus, Syria, on Thursday morning. OMAR SANADIKI/REUTERS WASHINGTON — A Defense Department investigation of a Special Forces mission in Niger last fall found widespread prob- lems across all levels of the mili- tary counterterrorism operation, but focused in particular on the ac- tions of junior officers leading up to an ambush that killed four American soldiers. The investigation, released Thursday, found that the 11-mem- ber team had not undergone cru- cial training as a unit before it de- ployed to Niger because of “per- sonnel turnover” and had not re- hearsed its mission before leaving its base. It said the two junior offi- cers had “mischaracterized” the mission in a required planning document filed before the team, which included Green Berets, de- parted. It also found that soldiers wounded on the mission — at least two Americans and three Ni- geriens — were not evacuated for more than four hours, far longer than the Pentagon had acknowl- edged. Most Americans were unaware before the Oct. 4 ambush that Green Berets, and 800 other American troops, were stationed in Niger, and the attack led to the largest loss of American lives dur- ing combat in Africa since the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” debacle in Somalia. The deaths of the four soldiers — Sgt. First Class Jeremiah W. Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright and Sgt. La David Johnson — set off a fierce debate over secretive American military missions in re- mote and far-flung battlegrounds. The investigation did not rec- ommend specific corrective ac- tion to avoid the confusion and lax oversight that contributed to the deaths. The findings have been met with dissension inside the mili- tary, and there are questions whether they glossed over blame for senior commanders who had ordered an unprepared and poorly equipped team on a search for a local militant leader in the desert scrub of western Niger. An unclassified executive sum- mary of the investigation and an hourlong briefing at the Pentagon by senior officers on Thursday of- fered only a glimpse of the deci- sions made before the local fight- ers linked to the Islamic State ini- tiated their ambush. Even as it found “individual, or- ganizational and institutional” mistakes, the investigation re- vealed heroic efforts by a team that was battered and outnum- bered as it braced to take a last In Niger Study, Junior Officers Are the Focus Team Was Unprepared and Poorly Equipped This article is by Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt. Continued on Page A12 FLASH TO THE FUTURE South Korea gave Kim Jong-un a USB drive with a plan to upgrade the North’s infrastructure. PAGE A10 THE DETAINEES Three freed Americans joined 13 others who have been held in North Korea and released since 1990. PAGE A10 KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The accounts of corruption are staggering: at least $3.5 billion stolen from a government fund and spent on expensive real es- tate, jewelry and art, with $731 million ending up in the personal accounts of the prime minister, Najib Razak. Malaysians were so enraged that they threw out Mr. Najib in national elections this week, the first time the governing party has lost power since independence more than 60 years ago. In his place, voters turned to a familiar face, Mahathir Mo- hamad, a 92-year-old former prime minister who had teamed up in an unlikely alliance with his political opponents, some of whom he had jailed. Mr. Mahathir was sworn in on Thursday as the new prime min- ister — the world’s oldest elected head of government — promising to fight corruption, prosecute Mr. Najib and unite this diverse nation of 31 million people. “You know the mess the coun- try is in,” Mr. Mahathir said at a news conference on Thursday morning, “and we need to attend to this mess as soon as possible.” “The rule of law will be fully im- plemented,” he said later at the conference. “And if the law says that Najib has done something wrong, then he will have to face the consequence.” The ouster of the governing party is striking in a region where autocratic government, arbitrary killings, imprisonment and media crackdowns have become com- mon. From President Rodrigo Duterte’s killing of drug users in the Philippines, to the slaughter of Malaysian Victor Vows to Clean House He Built By RICHARD C. PADDOCK Mahathir Mohamad, 92, is once again the prime minister. LAI SENG SIN/REUTERS Continued on Page A6 Millions marched in parades to remem- ber relatives who died in World War II. Moscow Journal. PAGE A14 Russia Honors Its War Heroes In a new memoir as he confronts cancer and his mortality, Senator John McCain yearns for a return to more civil poli- tics. On Washington. PAGE A19 Not One for Quiet Goodbyes Rudolph W. Giuliani said hush money, like that paid to women on behalf of the president, was routine. His former law firm disagreed. PAGE A18 Giuliani and Firm Part Ways The streaming service will no longer promote artists it deems to have en- gaged in “hateful conduct.” PAGE B1 R. Kelly Runs Afoul of Spotify He was M.V.P. He’s a “Seinfeld” legend, a quirky broadcaster and an author. Now Keith Hernandez is a social media savant. Of course, his cat helps. PAGE B7 SPORTSFRIDAY B7-11 I’m Hadji Hernandez. Meow. WASHINGTON — President Trump, exulting in the release of three Americans from prison in North Korea, confirmed Thursday that he would meet Kim Jong-un, the North’s leader, in Singapore on June 12, setting the date for a once unimaginable encounter. The choice of Singapore, a tidy, prosperous city-state with ties to both the United States and North Korea, is a small victory for Mr. Trump’s advisers, who talked him out of meeting Mr. Kim in the De- militarized Zone between North and South Korea — a far more symbolic, but politically problem- atic, location. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!” Mr. Trump said in a mid- morning post on Twitter, hours af- ter he traveled in the middle of the night to Joint Base Andrews near Washington to greet the three men: Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song. North Korea’s release of the Americans lifted a major obstacle to the summit meeting. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has taken charge of the diplomatic opening to the North, finalized its date and location during a 90- minute meeting with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, the north’s capital. Afterward, Mr. Pompeo left with the detainees on his plane. For Mr. Trump, basking in the glow of floodlights and TV cam- eras, it was a jubilant moment as he descended the steps of the air- craft with the three Americans, who flashed peace signs. But he acknowledged that the most diffi- cult phase of the negotiations — persuading North Korea to sur- render its nuclear weapons ar- senal — lies ahead. “We’re starting off on a new Trump to Meet Kim for Talks In Singapore Gathering June 12 at a Neutral Asian Site By MARK LANDLER and KATIE ROGERS President Trump with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Americans freed by North Korea. TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A11 David Brooks PAGE A27 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 Today, partly sunny, high 74. To- night, mostly cloudy, a few showers late, low 56. Tomorrow, some show- ers and thunderstorms, high 72. Weather map appears on Page B14. $3.00