C M Y K Yxxx,2017-09-17,A,001,Bs-4C,E1
VOL. CLXVI . . . . No. 57,723 © 2017 The New York Times Company SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2017
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FORTALEZA, Brazil — Children’ssqueals rang through the muggy morningair as a woman pushed a gleaming whitecart along pitted, trash-strewn streets.She was making deliveries to some of thepoorest households in this seaside city,bringing pudding, cookies and other pack-aged foods to the customers on her salesroute.
Celene da Silva, 29, is one of thousandsof door-to-door vendors for Nestlé, help-ing the world’s largest packaged food con-glomerate expand its reach into a quarter-million households in Brazil’s farthest-flung corners.
As she dropped off variety packs ofChandelle pudding, Kit-Kats and Muciloninfant cereal, there was something strik-ing about her customers: Many were visi-
bly overweight, even small children.She gestured to a home along her route
and shook her head, recalling how its pa-triarch, a morbidly obese man, died theprevious week. “He ate a piece of cake anddied in his sleep,” she said.
Mrs. da Silva, who herself weighs morethan 200 pounds, recently discovered that
she had high blood pressure, a conditionshe acknowledges is probably tied to herweakness for fried chicken and the Coca-Cola she drinks with every meal, break-fast included.
Nestlé’s direct-sales army in Brazil ispart of a broader transformation of thefood system that is delivering Western-style processed food and sugary drinks tothe most isolated pockets of Latin Amer-ica, Africa and Asia. As their growth slowsin the wealthiest countries, multinationalfood companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo andGeneral Mills have been aggressively ex-panding their presence in developing na-tions, unleashing a marketing juggernaut
Continued on Page 12
Celene da Silva, left, and her daughter Sabrina delivering Nestlé products like Kit-Kats and pudding in Fortaleza, Brazil.WILLIAM DANIELS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
PLANET FAT
Nestlé Goes Door to Door
By ANDREW JACOBS and MATT RICHTEL
How Big Business Got BrazilHooked on Junk Food
KABUL, Afghanistan — Soon,American Embassy employees inKabul will no longer need to take aChinook helicopter ride to crossthe street to a military base lessthan 100 yards outside the presentGreen Zone security district.
Instead, the boundaries of theGreen Zone will be redrawn to in-clude that base, known as the Ka-bul City Compound, formerly theheadquarters for American Spe-cial Operations forces in the capi-tal. The zone is separated from therest of the city by a network of po-lice, military and private securitycheckpoints.
The expansion is part of a hugepublic works project that over thenext two years will reshape thecenter of this city of five million tobring nearly all Western embas-sies, major government min-istries, and NATO and Americanmilitary headquarters within theprotected area.
After 16 years of American pres-ence in Kabul, it is a stark ac-knowledgment that even the city’scentral districts have become toodifficult to defend from Talibanbombings.
But the capital project is alsoclearly taking place to protect an-other long-term American invest-ment: Along with an increase introops to a reported 15,000, fromaround 11,000 at the moment, theTrump administration’s newstrategy for Afghanistan is likelyto keep the military in place wellinto the 2020s, even by the mostconservative estimates.
No one wants to say when anyfinal pullout will take place be-cause the emphasis now is on aconditions-based withdrawal —
PROJECT EXTENDSU.S. TIMETABLEIN AFGHANISTAN
A REMAKING OF KABUL
Expanding Green Zone,and Digging In forthe Next Decade
By ROD NORDLAND
Continued on Page 10
WASHINGTON — Every year,the president heads to New Yorkto welcome world leaders to theUnited Nations General Assem-bly. He gives a speech and meetswith an endless string of foreignpotentates to discuss a dizzyingarray of complicated, often in-tractable issues.
The days are “kind of likespeed dating from hell,” as oneanalyst put it, and the eveningsare “the world’s most tediouscocktail party.” In other words,not exactly President Trump’sfavored format.
But when Mr. Trump attendsthe first United Nations sessionof his presidency this comingweek, all eyes will be on him ascounterparts from around theglobe crane their necks and slidethrough the crowd to snatch ahandshake — and, in the process,try to figure out this most un-usual of American leaders.
“The world is still trying totake the measure of this presi-dent,” said Jon B. Alterman, asenior vice president at the Cen-ter for Strategic and Interna-tional Studies in Washington andauthor of the speed-dating anal-ogy. “For a number of leaders,this is going to be their firstchance to see him, to judge him,to try to get on his good side.”
In some places, there has beenan instinct to dismiss Mr. Trump,a bombastic, Twitter-obsessedpolitical and diplomatic neo-phyte. “But the fact is you can’twrite off the American presi-dent,” Mr. Alterman said.
One of Mr. Trump’s primarytasks will be to define how hisAmerica First approach — whichhas led him to pull out of interna-tional agreements on free tradeand climate change — fits intothe world-first mission of theUnited Nations.
His challenge is “to describethe Trump Doctrine on U.S.
As U.N. Meets,Eyes on TrumpLeaders Gather, TakingMeasure of a President
NEWS ANALYSIS
By PETER BAKER
Continued on Page 9
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — JackPhillips bakes beautiful cakes,and it is not a stretch to call him anartist. Five years ago, in a decisionthat has led to a Supreme Courtshowdown, he refused to use hisskills to make a wedding cake tocelebrate a same-sex marriage,saying it would violate his Chris-tian faith and hijack his right to ex-press himself.
“It’s more than just a cake,” hesaid at his bakery one recentmorning. “It’s a piece of art in somany ways.”
The couple he refused to serve,David Mullins and Charlie Craig,filed civil rights charges. Theysaid they had been demeaned andhumiliated as they sought to cele-brate their union.
“We asked for a cake,” Mr. Craigsaid. “We didn’t ask for a piece ofart or for him to make a statementfor us. He simply turned us awaybecause of who we are.”
At first blush, the case lookedlike a conflict between a state lawbanning discrimination and theFirst Amendment’s protection ofreligious freedom. But when theSupreme Court hears the case thisfall, the arguments will mostlycenter on a different part of theFirst Amendment: its protection
of free speech.The government, Mr. Phillips
contends, should not be allowed tocompel him to endorse a messageat odds with his beliefs.
“I’m being forced to use my cre-ativity, my talents and my art foran event — a significant religiousevent — that violates my religiousfaith,” Mr. Phillips said.
Gay rights groups regard thecase as a potent threat to theequality promised by the Su-preme Court in 2015 when it said
By ADAM LIPTAK
Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker,was accused of discrimination.His Supreme Court appeal willfocus on free speech rights.
NICK COTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page 16
Cake Is His ‘Art.’ But Can He Deny One to a Gay Couple?
Every other day or so, HatemEl-Gamasy connects to a news au-dience nearly halfway around theworld, delivering hot takes onAmerican politics, live from NewYork, but on Egyptian television.
When the broadcast ends, heslips out his earpieces, opens thedoor of his makeshift studio andreturns to his day job.
“You want ketchup on that?” hesaid to a customer on a recentmorning. “Extra ketchup as usu-al?”
Mr. El-Gamasy owns the LotusDeli in Ridgewood, Queens, aplace known for its sandwiches,
extensive craft beer selection, andits gracious, friendly owner. Butfew of his customers — and likely,none of his viewers in Egypt —know that the man making eggsandwiches and small talk behindthe counter is the same one whoappears on popular Egyptian tele-vision news programs, holdingforth on subjects from immigra-tion policy to North Korea.
Nor do many know that his tele-vision studio is actually a wash-room in the back, past the potatochips display.
After a reporter approached Mr.
Making Political News in EgyptFrom a Washroom in Queens
By SARAH MASLIN NIR
Hatem El-Gamasy, owner of the Lotus Deli in Queens, where heholds forth on news topics for Egyptian television programs.
MARK ABRAMSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page 17
HOUSTON — It was a hardchoice, but in the end it was nochoice at all. A small rescue boathad come up the driveway, offer-ing help. Carl Ellis was with hisfrail, 73-year-old mother, WilmaJean. The boat had room for one.
The water was already up to Mr.
Ellis’s knees, so there was no timeto wait for rescuers with moreroom. His mother would have togo alone.
Using the back of a pickup truckas a gangplank, Mr. Ellis helpedhis mother into the boat, her be-longings trussed up in garbagebags. There were no life jackets,but it was a short trip and the res-cuers promised to come right
back for him.He never saw them — or his
mother — again.Any catastrophic weather
event has its measurable aspects:inches of rain, speed of wind, cubicyards of debris. Others are incal-culable: waterlogged photos,frayed communities, the invisiblemoorings of permanence andsafety swept away.
But perhaps the worst thingsare the unknowable, forever lostin the confusion, mysteries likewhat happened to Ms. Ellis, whowas rescued not once, but twice,and who nonetheless became acasualty of the storm.
At the time her son believed shewas being ferried to higherground, she was found floating
Twice Saved From Houston Floods but Still, Mysteriously, a Victim
By SHAILA DEWAN
Continued on Page 18
A surge of violence has shaken theonce-peaceful tourist destination of LosCabos, exposing stark inequality andgovernment indifference. PAGE 6
INTERNATIONAL 4-14
Murder in a Mexican Hot SpotWe expect computers to do all sorts ofthings. But as those demands test com-puter chips’ limits, engineers are takingdesign cues from the brain. PAGE 1
SUNDAY BUSINESS
Chip Off the Old BlockHillary Clinton and the actress AmericaFerrera discuss the presidential elec-tion’s emotional toll, gratitude and apath forward. Table for Three. PAGE 1
SUNDAY STYLES
Pain and Progress After 2016Todd Marinovich, a starting quarter-back in the World DevelopmentalLeague, is making a return that haslittle to do with football. PAGE 1
SPORTSSUNDAY
At 48, Finally Playing Sober
U(DF47D3)W+@!:!/!=!/
Maureen Dowd PAGE 1
SUNDAY REVIEW
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