Yxxx,2017-03-30,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
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National Edition
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VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,552
THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017
© 2017 The New York Times Company
$2.50
Printed in Chicago
U.S. War Footprint Grows,
With No Endgame in Sight
Concerns That No One Is Planning for Peace
as Americans Expand Mideast Role
By BEN HUBBARD and MICHAEL R. GORDON
GILLES SABRIÉ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
A solar farm in the Xinjiang region of China. By 2030, China hopes 20 percent of its energy will come from renewable sources.
As Trump Backtracks, China Seizes Chance to Lead on Climate
By EDWARD WONG
For years, the Obama administration prodded, cajoled and beseeched China to make commitments to limit the use of fossil fuels to try to slow the global effects
of climate change.
President Barack Obama and
other American officials saw the
pledges from both Beijing and
Washington as crucial: China is
the largest emitter of greenhouse
gases, followed by the United
States.
In the coming years, the opposite dynamic is poised to play out.
President Trump’s signing of an
executive order on Tuesday aimed
at undoing many of the Obama administration’s climate change
policies flips the roles of the two
powers.
Now, it is far likelier that the
world will see China pushing the
United States to meet its commitments and try to live up to the letter and spirit of the 2015 Paris
Agreement, even if Mr. Trump has
signaled he has no intention of do-
Setting Bold Goals on
Green Power and
Pollution Curbs
ing so.
“They’ve set the direction they
intend to go in the next five years,”
Barbara Finamore, a senior lawyer and Asia director at the
Natural Resources Defense Council, based in New York, said of
China. “It’s clear they intend to
double down on bringing down
their reliance on coal and increasing their use of renewable energy.”
“China wants to take over the
role of the U.S. as a climate leader,
and they’ve baked it into their
five-year plans,” she added, referring to the economic development
blueprints drawn up by the Chinese government.
Even before the presidential
campaign last year, Mr. Trump
had made statements consistent
Continued on Page A12
2 Christie Allies
Going to Prison
In Bridge Case
commanders in the field to call in
airstrikes without waiting for permission from more senior officers.
“We recognized the nature of
the fight was going to change and
that we had to ensure that authorities were down to the right level
and that we empowered the onscene commander,” General Votel
said. He was speaking specifically
about discussions that he said began in November about how the
fights in Syria and Iraq against the
Islamic State were reaching critical phases in Mosul and Raqqa.
Concerns about the recent accusations of civilian casualties are
bringing some of these details to
light. But some of the shifts have
also involved small increases in
the deployment and use of American forces or, in Yemen, resuming
aid to allies that had previously
been suspended.
And they coincide with the settling in of a president who has
vowed to intensify the fight
against extremists abroad, and
whose budgetary and rhetorical
priorities have indicated a military-first approach even as he has
proposed cuts in diplomatic
spending.
To some critics, that suggests
that much more change is to
Continued on Page A6
F.D.A. NOMINEE Scott Gottlieb’s long career in the drug and health care
industry has raised questions about conflicts of interest. PAGE A17
A DAUGHTER’S ROLE Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of President
Trump, is becoming an official government employee. PAGE A20
U.S. to Remove
Rights Checks
On Arms Sale
By DAVID E. SANGER
and ERIC SCHMITT
By NICK CORASANITI
NEWARK — Two former allies
of Gov. Chris Christie were sentenced to prison on Wednesday
for their role in closing access
lanes to the George Washington
Bridge as political payback
against a New Jersey mayor, a key
chapter in the plot that derailed
Mr. Christie’s presidential aspirations and then dimmed his
chances to become President
Trump’s pick for vice president.
Bridget Anne Kelly, 44, who was
a top aide to Mr. Christie, was sentenced to 18 months in prison,
while Bill Baroni, 45, who served
as deputy executive director at
the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey, was sentenced to
two years in prison.
The scandal, which became
known as Bridgegate, was as
brazen as it was bizarre. In an effort to punish Mayor Mark J.
Sokolich of Fort Lee, a Democrat,
for not supporting Mr. Christie’s
re-election bid and his desire to
cultivate
bipartisan
support
ahead of a presidential run, members of the governor’s administration schemed with Port Authority
officials to trigger a massive traffic jam in Fort Lee. Over five days
in September 2013, the gridlock
ensnared emergency vehicles,
school buses and commuters,
even as Mr. Baroni ignored Mr.
Sokolich’s messages seeking an
explanation.
The plan was put into motion by
Ms. Kelly’s now infamous email to
David Wildstein, Mr. Baroni’s top
deputy at the Port Authority, who
pleaded guilty for his role in the
scandal in 2015: “Time for some
Continued on Page A25
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The
United States launched more
airstrikes in Yemen this month
than during all of last year. In Syria, it has airlifted local forces to
front-line positions and has been
accused of killing civilians in
airstrikes. In Iraq, American
troops and aircraft are central in
supporting an urban offensive in
Mosul, where airstrikes killed
scores of people on March 17.
Two months after the inauguration of President Trump, indications are mounting that the United
States military is deepening its involvement in a string of complex
wars in the Middle East that lack
clear endgames.
Rather than representing any
formal new Trump doctrine on
military action, however, American officials say that what is happening is a shift in military decision-making that began under
President Barack Obama. On display are some of the first indications of how complicated military
operations are continuing under a
president who has vowed to make
the military “fight to win.”
In an interview on Wednesday,
Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the commander of United States Central
Command,
said
the
new
procedures made it easier for
POOL PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER FURLONG
Prime Minister Theresa May signing the letter beginning Britain’s exit from the European Union.
NEWS ANALYSIS
Pillars of West Shaken, Not Shattered, by ‘Brexit’
By STEVEN ERLANGER
LONDON — On a day that
blended dull ritual with undeniable historical import, Britain
formally began its departure
from the European Union with
the delivery of a letter to Brussels, followed by lofty words from
Prime Minister Theresa May in
Parliament.
Two years of grinding divorce
negotiations now begin, with the
outcome unclear, except that the
talks are certain to be contentious and spiteful — and that
the only sure winners will be
lawyers and trade negotiators.
For the first time, the European bloc is losing a member, not
to mention its second-largest
Alliance Takes a Hit
But It’s Not Dead Yet
economy. The multilateral architecture that has shaped the
Western world since the aftermath of World War II has taken a
severe blow, and as the letter
was delivered on Wednesday,
questions abounded about
whether this pivot toward nationalism and self-interest represented the beginning of a more
volatile global era.
When Britons voted last June
to leave the European Union, the
champions of “Brexit” argued
that the country, with its exit,
was at the front edge of a larger
populist wave. Months later, the
election of Donald J. Trump as
president of the United States
only deepened the feeling that an
anti-establishment political contagion was sweeping across
Western democracies, upending
the established order. Britain, the
argument went, would be a winner in this new era.
Few people predicted the
British exit, and fewer still predicted Mr. Trump’s victory. But
few predicted where things stand
now, either: The European Union, if still ailing and dysfunctional, is far from dead. Populist
parties are sinking in the polls in
Germany and underperformed in
Continued on Page A10
WASHINGTON — Secretary of
State Rex W. Tillerson has decided
to lift all human rights conditions
on a major sale of F-16 fighter jets
and other arms to Bahrain in an
effort to end a rift between the
United States and a critical Middle East ally, according to administration and congressional officials involved in the debate.
Mr. Tillerson’s decision comes
as the Trump administration
looks to bolster Sunni Arab states
in the Middle East and find new
ways to confront Iran in the
Persian Gulf. Bahrain is a key
player in that effort, and home to
the United States Navy’s Fifth
Fleet, which patrols the strategic
waterway.
But the decision to drop the human rights assurances as a condition of the sale is bound to be read
by Saudi Arabia and other states
in the region as a sign that the new
administration plans to ease its
demands to protect and respect
political dissidents and protesters. The conditions on the sale
of 19 new American fighter jets,
worth $2.8 billion, had been imposed by the Obama administration amid continuing concerns
about the tiny Sunni monarchy’s
crackdown on majority Shiites.
The State Department declined
to comment on queries about Mr.
Tillerson’s decision, which has
been discussed at length with
some members of Congress but
not yet publicly announced.
The State Department on
Wednesday notified Congress of
its intent to proceed with the sale
without the conditions, said Micah
Johnson, a spokeswoman for the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Congress now has two review periods to examine the sale
and raise any objections.
Continued on Page A6
2 Senators Vow
Firmer Inquiry
As House Flails
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
and EMMARIE HUETTEMAN
WASHINGTON — Senators
leading the investigation into Russian interference in the November
election pledged on Wednesday to
conduct an aggressive inquiry, including an examination of any ties
to President Trump, as they
sought to distance themselves
from the flagging efforts in the
House.
In a conspicuous show of bipartisanship during a fractious
time at the Capitol, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee vowed to
forge ahead by interviewing key
players connected to Mr. Trump
and pressing intelligence agencies to provide all relevant information.
But their display of collegiality
seemed intended primarily as a
contrast to the explosive and often
bewildering statements in recent
days from the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee, Representative Devin
Nunes of California, whose perceived closeness with the Trump
White House has raised doubts
about his ability to conduct an impartial investigation.
Continued on Page A19
NATIONAL A11-21
ARTS C1-6
OBITUARIES B15-16
Transgender Bathroom Deal
New Clues From Suffragists
‘Anarchist Cookbook’ Writer
North Carolina legislators are said to
have reached a deal with the governor
over the state “bathroom bill.” PAGE A21
Nearly 100 letters from Susan B. Anthony and others have come to light, in a
collection that shows the networks that
drove a movement.
PAGE C1
William Powell, 66, was angry at the war
in Vietnam when he began his manifesto, which he later rejected. PAGE B16
Pulitzer-Winning Book Critic
NEW YORK A24-25
INTERNATIONAL A4-10
Kushner Tower Deal Fails
Some Good News for Elephants
A $4 billion deal for a Chinese company
to invest in a building owned by the
Kushner family fell apart.
PAGE A24
Ivory’s boom may be over. Its price has
sunk, reflecting less demand and better
advocacy, as in Kenya, above. PAGE A9
GABRIELLA DEMCZUK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Senators Richard M. Burr,
right, and Mark Warner.
THURSDAY STYLES D1-8
BUSINESS DAY B1-9
SPORTSTHURSDAY B10-14
Looking for the ‘Trump Bump’
A Risky Basketball Tradition
Consumers and stocks may be feeling a
postelection boom, but the economic
data doesn’t tell the same story. PAGE B1
The act of cutting down the net after
winning a championship game is not
without its dangers.
PAGE B10
Seeking Relevance in Taiwan
Girl Power Gets a New Look
Effectiveness of Online Ads
Inadequate Response to Abuse
The days of power and wealth are gone
for the Kuomintang in Taiwan, where
the party has lost its footing.
PAGE A4
The rising YouTube star JoJo Siwa, 13,
with her signature hair bows, is not
afraid to take on mean girls.
PAGE D1
JPMorgan Chase limited its display ads
to 5,000 preapproved websites. It found
the damage was minimal.
PAGE B1
U.S.A. Gymnastics needs to do more to
protect its athletes from sexual
predators, Juliet Macur writes. PAGE B10
William McPherson, 84, won late-life
acclaim for a rueful essay describing
his descent into poverty.
PAGE B16
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
Gail Collins
PAGE A27
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