HIS TALKS ENDED PRESIDENT CLAIMS - static01.nyt.com · The emails were the beginning of Mr. Trump s improbable trans-formation from a candidate who campaigned against Muslims to a

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,993 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018

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The proper pronunciation of Spanishnames on major league rosters can vexEnglish-speaking announcers. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-14

Sweating Over What to Stress

Sporting events have provided Russia aplatform for stepping into the globalelite after a series of military and finan-cial crises. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-13

World Cup Moment for Putin

The chef Gabrielle Hamilton has dis-cussed a partnership with the restau-rant’s scandal-clouded owner. PAGE A22

NEW YORK A22-25

Possible Deal Over Spotted PigThe rate at which the continent is losingice has tripled since 2007, according to anew study. PAGE A11

Antarctica’s Melting Accelerates

Sarah Vowell PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump declared Wednesday thatNorth Korea is “no longer a nucle-ar threat” to the United Stateseven though the two sides had yetto forge a concrete disarmamentplan and offered incomplete ac-counts of what they agreed to dur-ing this week’s summit meeting inSingapore.

Rejoicing in the glow of a his-toric encounter, Mr. Trump re-turned to Washington and por-trayed his agreement with KimJong-un, the North Korean leader,as a signal achievement thatmeant that the outcast state wasno longer the United States’ mostdangerous problem. But the pathto disarmament remained noclearer a day after the meeting.

North Korea’s state-controllednews media described a step-by-step process to dismantle its nu-clear weapons, with the UnitedStates rewarding it at each stage,something Mr. Trump has seemedto reject in the past. Mr. Trump’steam insisted that North Koreahad agreed to an intrusive inspec-tion regime even though Pyong-yang made no mention of that.

The confusion stemmed from ajoint statement that was long onlofty language and short on specif-ics. Signed Tuesday with a flour-

PRESIDENT CLAIMSHIS TALKS ENDEDNUCLEAR THREAT

SPECIFICS STILL SCARCE

Confusion Abounds Overa Path for Reaching

Disarmament

By PETER BAKERand CHOE SANG-HUN

President Trump in Singapore.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A12

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump wasn’t on the ballot oreven stateside for Tuesday’s pri-mary elections in Virginia andSouth Carolina. But he loomedover both states, just as he has innearly every nominating contestthis year, underscoring how theRepublican Party has become theparty of Trump and that its poli-ticians cross him at their peril.

As Representative Mark San-ford of South Carolina found outthe hard way, in his surprise pri-mary defeat, having a conserva-tive voting record is less impor-tant than demonstrating total loy-alty to Mr. Trump, who now enjoyshigher approval ratings in his ownparty than any modern presidentexcept George W. Bush followingthe attacks of Sept. 11. And in Vir-ginia, a far-right candidate, CoreyStewart, won the Republican Sen-ate nomination after waging an in-cendiary campaign and portray-ing himself as a disciple of Mr.Trump.

The president’s transformationof the G.O.P. — its policies, its tone,even the fate of its candidates —has never been so evident. A partythat once championed free tradehas now largely turned to protec-tionism under Mr. Trump. Ser-mons about inclusivity have beenreplaced with demagogic attackson immigrants and black athletes.A trust-but-verify approach to for-eign policy has given way to aseat-of-the-pants style in whichrogue regimes like North Koreaare elevated and democratic allieslike Canada are belittled.

Mr. Trump’s harsh attacks, in-cluding describing the news me-dia as “the country’s biggest ene-my” Tuesday, draw muted re-sponses or silence from most Re-publicans these days. The party’slawmakers have seen what he cando to their campaigns, having wit-nessed how Senators Jeff Flake ofArizona and Bob Corker of Ten-nessee saw their standing withconservative voters plummet af-ter they tangled with him. Neither

Vote SecuresTrump’s Grip On the G.O.P.

Candidates Now CrossHim at Their Peril

By JONATHAN MARTINand MICHAEL TACKETT

Continued on Page A20

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

A 2-year-old Honduran girl cried as her mother was searched near the U.S.-Mexico border. The House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, toldRepublicans on Wednesday that his compromise on immigration legislation had the support of President Trump. Page A16.

Detained Near the Border

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates— An Arab military coalition in-vaded Yemen’s main Red Sea porton Wednesday, worsening what isalready the world’s most severehumanitarian disaster by disrupt-ing the delivery of food and other

supplies to millions of Yemenis.The air and ground attack by

forces loyal to Saudi Arabia andthe United Arab Emirates wasaimed at tipping the balance inYemen’s civil war and driving Ira-nian-backed rebels out of the portof Al Hudaydah. Although fightingappeared to be limited to the out-skirts of the city on Wednesday,the prospect of sustained fighting

there stands to produce one of thebloodiest urban battles of the war,deepening what is already a hu-manitarian catastrophe.

After years of war, eight millionof Yemen’s estimated 28 millionpeople are at risk of starvation, ac-cording to the United Nations andaid agencies.

A protracted battle for Al Hu-daydah could rival the fighting

that ravaged Aleppo, Syria, or Mo-sul, Iraq, cities that have come tosymbolize the brutality of warfarein the Middle East, according toaid workers and diplomats. Abouta quarter of a million people in AlHudaydah, a city of 600,000, are atrisk in an urban assault, theUnited Nations said.

Saudi-Led Attack Deepens the World’s Worst Humanitarian CrisisBy MARGARET COKER

and ERIC SCHMITT

An Arab coalition’s assault on the port city of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, on Wednesday put millions more civilians at risk of starvation.NABIL HASSAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A9

Comcast announced an offerworth $65 billion for the bulk of21st Century Fox’s businesses onWednesday, setting up a show-down with the Walt Disney Com-pany for Rupert Murdoch’s mediaempire.

The all-cash bid by Comcast,the largest cable company andbroadband provider in the UnitedStates, came a day after a federaljudge approved a merger betweenAT&T and Time Warner. Comcastexecutives had awaited the deci-sion in that case before mountingtheir bid for 21st Century Fox.

The one-upmanship reflects anindustry under threat from SiliconValley, where deep-pocketed tech-nology companies like Netflix andAmazon are stealing audiences,ad dollars and big name creativetalents.

In December, Disney struck an

all-stock deal, worth $52.4 billionat the time, for Fox’s assets,shortly after Fox rebuffed an offerfrom Comcast that was worthroughly $60 billion, all in stock.

Now Comcast is back — creat-ing a likely bidding war for a con-glomerate that Mr. Murdoch hasspent a lifetime building, and set-ting up a showdown between theComcast chief executive Brian L.Roberts and his counterpart atDisney, Robert A. Iger, who hasstaked his legacy on this deal.

There is bad blood between Dis-ney and Comcast. The rancorstretches back to at least 2004,when Comcast tried to swallowDisney. The Disney board foughtoff that attempt, but Mr. Iger andhis top lieutenants have never for-gotten it. Anyone on the JurassicPark rides at NBCUniversal’s

Comcast, Raising Its Bid for Fox,Ratchets Up a Duel With Disney

By EDMUND LEE and BROOKS BARNES

Continued on Page A15

WASHINGTON — The FederalReserve raised interest rates onWednesday and signaled that twoadditional increases were on theway this year, as officials ex-pressed confidence that theUnited States economy wasstrong enough for borrowingcosts to rise without choking offeconomic growth.

Jerome H. Powell, the Fedchairman, speaking in unusuallyblunt terms at a news conferenceon Wednesday, said the economyhad strengthened significantlysince the 2008 financial crisis andwas approaching a “normal” levelthat could allow the Fed to soonstep back and play less of a hands-on role in encouraging economicactivity.

The Fed’s optimism about thestate of the economy is very likelyto translate into higher borrowing

costs for cars, home mortgagesand credit cards over the nextyear as the central bank raises in-terest rates more quickly thanwas anticipated.

Wednesday’s rate increase wasthe second this year and the sev-enth since the end of the Great Re-cession and brings the Fed’sbenchmark rate to a range of 1.75to 2 percent. The last time the ratetopped 2 percent was in late sum-mer 2008, when the economy wascontracting and the Fed was cut-ting rates toward zero, where theywould remain for years after thefinancial crisis.

“The decision you see today isanother sign that the U.S. econ-omy is in great shape,” Mr. Powellsaid after the Fed’s two-day policymeeting. “Most people who wantto find jobs are finding them.”

With Economy Near ‘Normal,’Fed Sticks to Plan to Lift Rates

By JIM TANKERSLEY and NEIL IRWIN

Continued on Page A18

The billionaire financier TomBarrack was caught in a bind.

In April 2016, his close friendDonald J. Trump was about toclinch the Republican presidentialnomination. But Mr. Trump’s out-spoken hostility to Muslims —epitomized by his call for a ban onMuslim immigrants — was of-fending the Persian Gulf princesMr. Barrack had depended on fordecades as investors and buyers.

“Confusion about your friendDonald Trump is VERY high,”Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba ofthe United Arab Emirates emailedback when Mr. Barrack tried to in-troduce the candidate, in a mes-sage not previously reported. Mr.Trump’s image, the ambassadorwarned, “has many people ex-tremely worried.”

Not deterred, Mr. Barrack, alongtime friend who had donebusiness with the ambassador, as-sured him that Mr. Trump under-stood the Persian Gulf perspec-tive. “He also has joint ventures inthe U.A.E.!” Mr. Barrack wrote inan email on April 26.

The emails were the beginningof Mr. Trump’s improbable trans-formation from a candidate who

campaigned against Muslims to apresident celebrated in the royalcourts of Riyadh and Abu Dhabias perhaps the best friend in theWhite House that their rulershave ever had. It is a shift that tes-tifies not only to Mr. Trump’s spe-cial flexibility, but also to Mr. Bar-rack’s unique place in the Trumpworld, at once a fellow tycoon anda flattering courtier, a confidantand a power broker.

During the Trump campaign,Mr. Barrack was a top fund-raiserand trusted gatekeeper whoopened communications with theEmiratis and Saudis, recom-mended that the candidate bringon Paul Manafort as campaignmanager — and then tried to ar-range a secret meeting betweenMr. Manafort and the crownprince of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Bar-rack was later named chairman ofMr. Trump’s inaugural committee.

But Mr. Manafort has sincebeen indicted by the special pros-ecutor investigating Russianmeddling in the presidential elec-tion. The same inquiry is examin-ing whether the Emiratis and

Arab Princes Embrace Trump,Set Up by Tycoon Matchmaker

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Continued on Page A8

Apple is closing a loophole that let theauthorities hack into iPhones, angeringthe police and reigniting a debate oversecurity versus privacy. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-7

Apple Plugs a Security Crack

Something called “dad style” — sockswith shorts, light-wash jeans, orthope-dic-looking sneakers — is cool. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-8

Wait. Dad Is Fashionable Now?

What happens to a rural town after itloses its only school? Arena, Wis., popu-lation 834, is about to find out. PAGE A14

NATIONAL A14-21

School’s Out. Forever.A joint bid from the United States, Mex-ico and Canada beat a proposal by Mo-rocco to win the World Cup vote. PAGE B8

North America to Host ’26 CupBuoyed by what they saw in Alabama,black voters are warning politicians notto take them for granted. PAGE A25

Demanding More in New YorkAfter playing an assassin in “Home-land,” Rupert Friend has a new role as amysterious guy next door. PAGE D1

Less Killing, More Neighbors

Shows like “Angels in America’’ are farfrom short, so a big break is needed. Wehave ideas for filling that gap. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Broadway’s Lengthy Halftimes

Insomniacs once dozed off to bushy-haired Bob Ross giving painting tips onPBS. That roused an app maker. PAGE C1

On His Palette, Dabs of Zzzzzs

LEGAL SPLIT Michael D. Cohen,President Trump’s fixer, is partingwith his defense team. PAGE A19

Late EditionToday, sunshine and patchy clouds,breezy, a less humid day, high 84. To-night, clear, low 61. Tomorrow,sunny to partly cloudy, seasonable,high 78. Weather map, Page A24.

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