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INTERNATIONAL EDITION | THURSDAY,AUGUST 8, 2019

WOODSTOCK

BIRTHPLACE OF

FESTIVAL FASHION

PAGE 12 | STYLE

FAN BINGBING

CAUTIOUS RETURN

TO THE SPOTLIGHT

PAGE 3 | WORLD

‘DERRY GIRLS’

LAUGHING AT LIFE

IN A CONFLICT ZONE

PAGE 14 | CULTURE

Like a blast wave, the psychological

shock of a bombing reverberates far be-

yond the site of the attack, inflicting un-

seen wounds that last a lifetime. Those

who absorb the blast and survive are

forever altered, and even people miles

away can be swept up in the emotional

aftermath.

For many, memories of a bombing are

Every night, Hamdullah Hemat gulps

down a 500-milligram prescription

sleeping pill. He is 15 years old, a ninth

grader. Last month, he saw his best

friend die in a suicide bombing at their

school.

Mary Alimi, a 30-year-old mother of

three, suffered a head injury in the same

bombing. She can no longer remember

her children’s names.

Jamila Neyazi is 19, a schoolteacher.

She suffered hand and shoulder wounds

in the July 7 blast and saw many of her

students cut by shattered glass, or

bludgeoned by flying debris. She fears

she is clinically depressed.

“I feel numb,” she said. “I wish there

was a calm, dark place where I could sit

and cry.”

There are dozens of suicide bombings

in Afghanistan every year. Each is

uniquely tragic, and each is swiftly over-

shadowed by the brutality of the next.

so painful and insistent that they blot

out any thoughts of a future.

“I was born in war. I grew up in war.

And I will be killed by war,” said Ms.

Neyazi, the young teacher.

For most Afghans, the counseling that

many trauma victims would receive in

the West is not an option. Treatment is

scarce, and many of those who could ac-

cess it fear being stigmatized, said Lyla

Lynn, an American psychologist who

works in the country. Afghans who are

traumatized by violence typically seek

out a mullah or visit a shrine, she said.

The World Health Organization has

estimated that in Afghanistan, a country

of about 35 million, more than a million

people suffer from clinical depression,

and at least 1.2 million from anxiety. But

it says the real figures are likely to be

much higher.

The Taliban suicide bomber who deto-

nated a truck full of explosives on the

morning of July 7 was targeting a non-

descript building in Ghazni, a sprawling

city in eastern Afghanistan. The build-

ing housed an office of the National Di-

rectorate of Security, the government

spy agency.

The bomber may or may not have no-

ticed that four schools were nearby,

clustered together in the densely

packed neighborhood. The bombing

killed 12 civilians, including 15-year-old

Hamdullah’s best friend, Hamidullah,

also 15. More than 100 children were

wounded.

The military term for such casualties

is collateral damage. The same term

could apply to Aziza Alimi, 70, who

watched her home collapse from the ex-

plosion but escaped without injury. Her

grandson’s wife is Ms. Alimi, the mother

A FGHANISTAN, PAGE 4

An anguish that won’t stop

GHAZNI, AFGHANISTAN

Survivors of bombings

in Afghanistan struggle

to rebuild their lives

BY FATIMA FAIZI

AND DAVID ZUCCHINO

Mary Alimi, a 30-year-old mother of three, suffered a head injury in the suicide bomb-

ing in Ghazni, Afghanistan, last month. She can’t remember her children’s names.

FATIMA FAIZI/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate in lit-

erature whose best-selling work ex-

plored black identity in America and in

particular the often crushing experi-

ence of black women through luminous,

incantatory prose resembling that of no

other writer in English, died on Monday

in New York. She was 88.

Her death, at Montefiore Medical

Center, was announced by her publisher,

Alfred A. Knopf. A spokeswoman said

the cause was complications of pneumo-

nia. Ms. Morrison lived in Grand View-

on-Hudson, N.Y.

The first black woman of any nation-

ality to win the Nobel Prize in Litera-

ture, in 1993, Ms. Morrison was the au-

thor of 11 novels as well as children’s

books and essay collections. Among

them were celebrated works like “Song

of Solomon,” which received the Na-

tional Book Critics Circle Award in 1977,

and “Beloved,” which won the Pulitzer

Prize in 1988.

Ms. Morrison was one of the rare

American authors whose books were

both critical and commercial successes.

Her novels appeared regularly on the

New York Times best-seller list, were

featured multiple times on Oprah Win-

frey’s television book club and were the

subject of myriad critical studies. A

longtime faculty member at Princeton

University, Ms. Morrison lectured

widely and was seen often on television.

In awarding the Nobel, the Swedish

Academy cited her “novels character-

ized by visionary force and poetic im-

port,” through which she “gives life to an

essential aspect of American reality.”

Ms. Morrison animated that reality in

prose that rings with the cadences of

black oral tradition. Her plots are

MORRISON, PAGE 2

Toni Morrison in 2008. The first black woman of any nationality to win the Nobel Prize

in Literature, she also received a Pulitzer in 1988 for her novel “Beloved.”

DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Novelist’s ‘visionary force’

explored black experience

TONI MORRISON

1931-

BY MARGALIT FOX

The New York Times publishes opinion

from a wide range of perspectives in

hopes of promoting constructive debate

about consequential questions.

China’s leader has sent a strong mes-

sage: The country’s currency can be

used as a weapon in the trade war with

the United States.

By allowing the Chinese currency to

weaken past a key level this week, Chi-

na’s president, Xi Jinping, is adopting a

hard-line stance in what is turning into a

long-lasting duel between two economic

superpowers.

The Chinese leader had little choice,

in the face of what he sees as a quixotic,

emotion-driven President Trump, Chi-

nese analysts say. Mr. Xi needs to ap-

pear strong, to preserve his firm grip on

the political apparatus and public propa-

ganda machine. He must also deal with

the weight of history that contends the

Communist Party must not bend to for-

eign nations.

And he is willing to take action, even if

it means enduring the economic fallout.

As the economy slows, he risks inflicting

serious damage by running up a huge

debt load without the growth to justify it.

“Xi just changed his strategic think-

ing,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of in-

ternational relations at Renmin Univer-

sity in Beijing. “He is determined to re-

sist and have the Americans step back

first.”

The tensions reached a new high after

Mr. Trump announced plans last week to

impose a 10 percent tariff on an addi-

tional $300 billion worth of Chinese im-

ports in September. His decision came

just one day after American and Chinese

negotiators held inconclusive trade

talks in Shanghai.

Then, for the first time in more than a

decade, Mr. Xi allowed China’s currency,

the renminbi, to weaken past the psy-

chologically important level of 7 ren-

minbi to the dollar. China also said it

would no longer purchase soy beans and

other crops from the United States. On

Monday, Mr. Trump, in response, la-

beled China a currency manipulator.

China signaled on Tuesday it would

not unleash the full power of its cur-

rency just yet, helping to stabilize finan-

cial markets. But China’s official news

media continued to strike a strident

tone, taking a broad swipe at the United

States.

The People’s Daily berated Washing-

ton — though stopped short of naming

Mr. Trump — for “its obsession with

American privileges.” “The U.S. is ex-

C HINA, PAGE 8

In trade war,

Chinese

leader takes

a risky path

BEIJING

Letting currency weaken

helps Xi’s hold on power

but could harm economy

BY JANE PERLEZ

AND ALEXANDRA STEVENSON

It’s hard to calculate the damage that

President Trump’s overt racism and

almost daily attacks on black and

brown people are having on the fabric

of America. With white supremacy

bolstered from the Oval Office, hate

crimes and domestic terrorism inci-

dents are increasing, including, it

appears, Saturday’s mass shooting in

El Paso.

At the same time, immigrants and

native-born Americans live in constant

fear of law enforcement officials em-

boldened to think they can act with

impunity. Still, Mr. Trump revels in

ripping off the fragile scab over the

lingering sore that is America’s histori-

cal racial divide, as if to ensure it never

heals.

The president’s

appalling goal,

quite simply, is to

pit Americans

against one another

for crass political

purposes as well as,

it seems, to vent his

unabashed personal

prejudice. Mean-

while, Republicans

in Congress by and

large amplify his message through

their deafening silence, abdicating

their responsibility to serve the coun-

try above any political master and

making a mockery of their claim to be

“the party of Lincoln.”

Is there no floor to how low this

president and complicit Republicans

are prepared to go to divide America?

Yet, the consequences of Mr.

Trump’s raw racism are not contained

within America’s shores. They ricochet

around the world as far away as New

Zealand, poison the international cli-

mate and undermine America’s ability

to secure its global interests.

America’s closest allies — from

Canada to Britain and Germany —

expressed outrage at Mr. Trump’s

demand that four members of Con-

gress, each American citizens and

women of color, “go back” to “the

totally broken and crime infested

places from which they came.” That

allied leaders, whose countries’ part-

nership we prize because they share

both our interests and our values, felt

compelled to condemn the president’s

racist comments marks a fresh nadir in

global regard for America’s leadership.

When the president of the United

States reveals himself to be an un-

abashed bigot, attacking minorities in

his own country, America’s ability to

stand credibly against human rights

A president,

and bigotry

as his poison

Susan E. Rice

Contributing Writer

OPINION

The conse-

quences

ricochet

around the

world and

embolden

America’s

adversaries.

R ICE, PAGE 11

Dire shortage Around the world, 17 countries are currently at risk of running out of water, according to new data from the World Resources Institute. Climate

change and mismanagement are making the problem worse. The stakes are high, with consequences for public health and potential for social unrest. PAGE 4

Water stress level

Low Low to

medium

Medium High

to high

Extremely high

No data

São PauloSão Paulo

SSantiagoantiago

LLos Angelesos Angeles

New YorkNew York

Mexico CityMexico City

Cape Cape TownTown

Melbourne

Jakarta

CairoCairo

RiyadhRiyadh

MMoscowoscow

LLondonondon

MMadridadrid

NNew Delhiew Delhi

BeBeijingijing

SSeouleoul

CheChennainnai

BB R A ZR A Z I LI L

U N I T E D

STAT ES

U N I TU N I T E DE D

STAT ESSTAT ES

AU ST R A L I AAU ST R A L I AAU ST R A L I A

Qatar is the most

water stressed

country.

Source: World Resources Institute

Atlantic

Ocean

Pacific

Ocean

Indian

Ocean

C A N A DAC A N A DA

C H I N AC HI NA

I N D I AI NI N D I AD IA

R U SS I AR U SS I A

A F R I C AA F R IA F R I C AA F R I C AA F R I C AA F R I C AA F R I C AA F R I C AC A

A quarter of humanity faces looming water crises

SOURCE: WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE WEIYI CAI/THE NEW YORK TIMES

CHINA’S I.O.U. ECONOMY

More than $200 billion in notes promis-

ing payment are floating around the

Chinese financial system. PAGE 7

Here to steal your heart.

nytimes.com/mlpodcast

Issue Number

Andorra € 3.70Antilles € 4.00 No. 42,

Austria € 3.50Bahrain BD 1.

Belgium € 3.50Bos. & Herz. KM 5.

Cameroon CFA 2700

Canada CAN$ 5.50Croatia KN 22.

Cyprus € 3.20Czech Rep CZK 110

Denmark Dkr 30Egypt EGP 32.

Estonia € 3.

Finland € 3.50France € 3.

Gabon CFA 2700Germany € 3.

Great Britain £ 2.20Greece € 2.

Hungary HUF 950

Israel NIS 13.50Israel / Eilat NIS 11.

Italy € 3.50Ivory Coast CFA 2700

Jordan JD 2.00Lebanon LBP 5,

Luxembourg € 3.

Slovenia € 3.40Spain € 3.

Sweden Skr 35Switzerland CHF 4.

Syria US$ 3.00The Netherlands € 3.

Tunisia Din 5.

Qatar QR 12.00Republic of Ireland ¤ 3.

Reunion € 3.50Saudi Arabia SR 15.

Senegal CFA 2700Serbia Din 280

Slovakia € 3.

Malta € 3.50Montenegro € 3.

Morocco MAD 30Norway Nkr 33

Oman OMR 1.40Poland Zl 15

Portugal € 3.

NEWSSTAND PRICES

Turkey TL 17U.A.E. AED 14.

United States $ 4.00United States Military

(Europe) $ 2.

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