BIDEN PICKS TEAM SET on FORTIFYING WORLD ALLIANCES Aiming to Reverse Trump’S Isolationism, but Not Repeat Obama’S Missteps
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C M Y K Nxxx,2020-11-25,A,001,Bs-4C,E2 Late Edition Today, mostly cloudy, turning breezy, milder, high 56. Tonight, mostly cloudy, turning rainy, low 50. Tomorrow, periodic rain, foggy ar- eas, high 58. Weather map, Page B7. VOL. CLXX ... No. 58,888 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 $3.00 Confronting Global Threats President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, far right, introduced the nominees for the chief national security posts. BIDEN PICKS TEAM SET ON FORTIFYING WORLD ALLIANCES Aiming to Reverse Trump’s Isolationism, but Not Repeat Obama’s Missteps By ANNIE KARNI and DAVID E. SANGER WILMINGTON, Del. — Presi- tere conditions imaginable — is dent-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. for- just indispensable,” said Ms. mally introduced a national secu- Haines, who would be the first rity team on Tuesday custom de- woman to serve as director of na- signed to repudiate President tional intelligence, overseeing 16 Trump’s nationalistic isolation- separate agencies. ism. Mr. Biden has hardly created a His nominee for secretary of team of rivals. Many of his nomi- state said in his remarks that nees have worked together for Americans needed the “humility years and as the “deputies” in the and confidence” to depend on al- Obama administration who ran lies. His choice to execute the na- the gears of government at the tion’s immigration policy is a Cu- White House, the State Depart- ban-American whose parents ment and the C.I.A. That also in- were refugees from Fidel Castro. cludes the Department of Home- And his new intelligence chief land Security, where Alejandro N. warned Mr. Biden when she spoke Mayorkas, who will oversee immi- that she would bring him news gration policy, had served as dep- ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES that would be politically “incon- uty secretary before Mr. Biden venient or difficult.” named him to lead the depart- Antony J. Blinken Jake Sullivan Alejandro N. Mayorkas Avril D. Haines John Kerry Linda Thomas- They were joined by a career ment. Greenfield SECRETARY OF STATE: NATIONAL SECURITY SECRETARY OF DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL SPECIAL ENVOY FOR Foreign Service officer who will Several are close friends. And The choice of Mr. ADVISER: Mr. Sullivan is HOMELAND SECURITY: INTELLIGENCE: Ms. CLIMATE: Mr. Kerry’s U.N. AMBASSADOR: With serve as ambassador to the most would be considered “liberal Blinken appears to be a former Rhodes schol- Mr. Mayorkas, who Haines, who served in newly created cabinet- Ms. Thomas-Green- United Nations and John Kerry, interventionists” who led the an effort to rebuild ar and a Yale Law would be the first immi- both the Obama and level position carries field, behind Ms. Harris who ran for president unsuccess- charge against Mr. Trump’s dis- relationships with School graduate. For- grant and the first Bush administrations, with it a seat on the above, the post will be fully 16 years ago and then be- missal of America’s traditional foreign leaders that mer Secretary of State Latino to hold the post, would be the first wom- National Security Coun- restored to cabinet- came President Barack Obama’s role as the keystone in both Atlan- have atrophied under Hillary Clinton has may roll back some of an to serve as the cil. This is the first time level status, giving her a secretary of state. Mr. Biden ap- tic and Pacific alliances. the isolationist policies called him a “once-in-a- the more punitive country’s top intelli- an adviser on climate seat on the National pointed him to a new role inside It all gave the Tuesday an- of President Trump. generation talent.” immigration policies. gence official. will join the group. Security Council. the National Security Council to nouncement at Mr. Biden’s head- put “climate change on the quarters in Wilmington the air of a agenda in the Situation Room,” af- restoration, or at least a class re- ter four years in which the Trump union. administration tried to have the Yet in his comments, Mr. Biden Mayor Faulted As Virus Mutated, It Became Easier to Spread words struck from summit com- also seemed to acknowledge that muniqués and international the dangers his team would con- the variant had probably evolved agreements. front were starkly different from By All Parties This article is by James Glanz, Evidence of Significant the ability to infect people more ef- But it was in Avril Haines’s pae- the ones they dealt with during Benedict Carey and Hannah Beech. ficiently. Many were skeptical, ar- an to the intelligence community the Obama presidency. “While guing that the variant may have Over Schools As the coronavirus swept Change From Initial — which Mr. Trump often re- this team has unmatched experi- across the world, it picked up ran- been simply lucky, appearing garded as a group of “deep state” ence and accomplishments, they dom alterations to its genetic se- Wuhan Variant more often by chance in large epi- renegades who wrongly tied him also reflect the idea that we can- demics, like Northern Italy’s, that to Russia — that the contrast with not meet these challenges with old By ELIZA SHAPIRO quence. Like meaningless typos in a script, most of those mutations seeded outbreaks elsewhere. the outgoing administration be- thinking and unchanged habits,” It was just hours before Mayor made no difference in how the vi- was first spotted in eastern China But a host of new research — in- came clear. “To our intelligence he said. Bill de Blasio would reveal that rus behaved. in January and then spread cluding close genetic analysis of professionals, the work you do — Mr. Biden talked about the need New York City had reached a test But one mutation near the be- quickly throughout Europe and outbreaks and lab work with ham- oftentimes under the most aus- Continued on Page A14 positivity rate that would trigger ginning of the pandemic did make New York City. Within months, the sters and human lung tissue — the shutdown of the entire public a difference, multiple new find- variant took over much of the has supported the view that the school system, and he was coming ings suggest, helping the virus world, displacing other variants. mutated virus did in fact have a TRANSITION Free to interact with their government counterparts, the under intense pressure to find a spread more easily from person to For months, scientists have distinct advantage, infecting peo- president-elect’s staff members fanned out across the capital. PAGE A14 way to keep schools open. person and making the pandemic been fiercely debating why. Re- ple more easily than the original A group of parents was furi- harder to stop. searchers at Los Alamos National variant detected in Wuhan, China. FLYNN PARDON President Trump is said to have told aides he will ously circulating a petition calling The mutation, known as 614G, Laboratory argued in May that Continued on Page A6 pardon Michael T. Flynn, his former national security adviser. PAGE A17 on the mayor to relent and pro- moted it with the hashtag #Keep- NYCSchoolsOpen. Leading public health experts had loudly regis- DAVID N. DINKINS, 1927-2020 tered their skepticism of the city’s Sensing an End Trump’s Attack plan to close schools before indoor dining. Local lawmakers joined in, A Trailblazing Leader in a Time of Turmoil To Uncertainty, Is Stress-Testing Wall St. Soars Election System By ROBERT D. McFADDEN David N. Dinkins, a barber’s son who became New York City’s By MATT PHILLIPS By ALEXANDER BURNS first Black mayor on the wings of A day after the Trump adminis- As President Trump’s efforts racial harmony but who was tration effectively acknowledged to overturn the 2020 election turned out by voters after one the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr., have steadily disintegrated, the term over his handling of racial vi- investors showed their relief by country appears to have escaped olence in Crown Heights, Brook- pushing the two major stock mar- a doomsday scenario in the lyn, died on Monday night at his ket indexes to record highs on campaign’s epi- home on the Upper East Side of Tuesday. POLITICAL logue: Since Nov. Manhattan. He was 93. It was a welcome party of sorts MEMO 3, there have been His death was confirmed by for Mr. Biden, but what investors no tanks in the TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES Mayor Bill de Blasio. It came less were really embracing was the streets or widespread civil un- The first day back to school than two months after Mr. Dink- end of uncertainty. The president- rest, no brazen intervention by last month in Queens. ins’s wife, Joyce Dinkins, died at elect has vowed to push for more the judiciary or a partisan state 89. stimulus to bolster the economy. legislature. Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Cautious, deliberate, a Harlem His selection for Treasury secre- obvious victory has withstood demanding that Mr. de Blasio re- Democrat who climbed to City tary, Janet L. Yellen, is well known Mr. Trump’s peddling of conspir- verse course. Hall through relatively minor from her days as Federal Reserve acy theories and his campaign of But even as he put off announc- elective and appointive offices, chair. And several new coronavi- groundless lawsuits. ing his decision for hours, Mr. de Mr. Dinkins had none of the flam- rus vaccine candidates mean that In the end — and the postelec- Blasio and his team were reaching boyance of Edward I. Koch, who the pandemic could be under con- tion standoff instigated by Mr.