1
U(D54G1D)y+?!&!@!#!/ WASHINGTON — President Trump thrust himself into a bitter Persian Gulf dispute on Tuesday, taking credit for Saudi Arabia’s move to isolate its smaller neigh- bor, Qatar, and rattling his na- tional security staff by upending a critical American strategic rela- tionship. In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump said his call for an end to the fi- nancing of radical groups had prompted Saudi Arabia and four other countries to act this week against Qatar, a tiny, energy-rich emirate that is arguably Ameri- ca’s most important military out- post in the Middle East. “During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radi- cal Ideology,” he wrote in a mid- morning post. “Leaders pointed to Qatar — look!” Qatar has long been accused of funneling money to the Muslim Brotherhood — which has offi- cially forsworn violence but is still accused of terrorism by some countries — as well as to radical groups in Syria, Libya and other Arab nations. But it is also home to two major American command posts, including a $60 million cen- ter from which the United States and its allies conduct their air war on Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Those contradictory roles may explain the mixed signals the ad- ministration sent after Saudi Ara- bia’s unexpected move. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and De- fense Secretary Jim Mattis ini- tially tried on Monday to smooth over the rift, with Mr. Tillerson of- fering to play peacemaker and Mr. Mattis insisting it would have no effect on the campaign against the Islamic State. Less than 12 hours later, howev- er, Mr. Trump discarded that ap- proach by putting his thumb on the scale firmly in Saudi Arabia’s favor. His tweets, which a senior White House official said were not a result of any policy deliberation, sowed confusion about America’s strategy and its intentions toward a key military partner. “So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 coun- tries already paying off,” Mr. Trump wrote. “They said they would take a hard line on funding.” He added, “Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!” Additionally, officials in Jordan said on Tuesday that the country would downgrade its diplomatic relations with Qatar and revoke the license of the Doha-based tele- vision channel Al Jazeera, Reu- ters reported. On Tuesday evening, the presi- dent appeared to be trying to ease tensions. In a call with King Sal- man of Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump Trump Treads Into Feud Between Qatar and Saudis Taking Credit for a Move Against a Partner, Upending a Strategic Relationship By MARK LANDLER Continued on Page A8 BEIJING — Gov. Jerry Brown of California should be fading quietly into the final days of his ca- reer. After 40 years in public life, Mr. Brown, 79, a Democrat, is in the final stretch as the state’s chief executive. He has been talking about the Colusa County family ranch where he wants to retire. And a battery of younger poli- ticians is already battling to suc- ceed him. But instead, Mr. Brown was in China on Tuesday, emerging as a de facto envoy from the United States on climate change at a time when President Trump has re- nounced efforts to battle global emissions. In a meeting packed with symbolism — and one that seemed at once to elevate the Cali- fornia governor and rebuke Mr. Trump — President Xi Jinping of China met with Mr. Brown, at the governor’s request, at the very moment China prepares to take a more commanding role in fighting climate change. “California’s leading, China’s leading,” Mr. Brown said at a wide-ranging and at times feisty news conference after he met with Mr. Xi. “It’s true I didn’t come to Washington, I came to Beijing. Well, someday I’m going to go to Washington, but not this week.” Mr. Brown has long used his platform as governor to advocate emission reduction policies, both in his state and globally. But the decision by Mr. Trump to with- draw from the Paris climate agreement, on the eve of Mr. California’s Governor Steps In To Lead Charge on the Climate By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ and ADAM NAGOURNEY Continued on Page A13 In San Francisco’s public schools, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, is giving middle school principals $100,000 “innovation grants” and encour- aging them to behave more like start-up founders and less like bu- reaucrats. In Maryland, Texas, Virginia and other states, Netflix’s chief, Reed Hastings, is championing a popular math-teaching program where Netflix-like algorithms de- termine which lessons students see. And in more than 100 schools nationwide, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief, is testing one of his latest big ideas: software that puts children in charge of their own learning, recasting their teachers as facilitators and men- tors. In the space of just a few years, technology giants have begun re- making the very nature of school- ing on a vast scale, using some of the same techniques that have made their companies linchpins of the American economy. Through their philanthropy, they are influ- encing the subjects that schools teach, the classroom tools that teachers choose and fundamental approaches to learning. Tech Billionaires Reinvent Schools, With Students as Beta Testers By NATASHA SINGER Continued on Page A14 EDUCATION DISRUPTED The C.E.O. Lesson Plan WASHINGTON — The day af- ter President Trump asked James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, to end an investigation into his for- mer national security adviser, Mr. Comey confronted Attorney Gen- eral Jeff Sessions and said he did not want to be left alone again with the president, according to current and former law enforce- ment officials. Mr. Comey believed Mr. Ses- sions should protect the F.B.I. from White House influence, the officials said, and pulled him aside after a meeting in February to tell him that private interactions be- tween the F.B.I. director and the president were inappropriate. But Mr. Sessions could not guarantee that the president would not try to talk to Mr. Comey alone again, the officials said. Mr. Comey did not reveal, how- ever, what had so unnerved him about his Oval Office meeting with the president: Mr. Trump’s re- quest that the F.B.I. director end the investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, who had just been fired. By the time Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey Didn’t Want to Be Alone With President, He Told Sessions By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MATT APUZZO Continued on Page A19 TENSIONS Jeff Sessions is said to have offered to resign as at- torney general. Page A18. CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES JOSHUA BRIGHT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Yellow taxis at the Port Authority Bus Terminal will embrace the world of ride-sharing. Page A21. Strangers in a Cab LONDON — Islamic State propaganda had been found in the bag of one attacker while he was trying to board a flight in Italy. An F.B.I. informant said he had raised alarms about the second attacker two years ago. The third attacker, denied asylum in Britain, ap- peared to have sneaked in from Ireland. The warning signs about the three assailants in a white van who smashed and stabbed their way through a trendy London neighborhood tumbled into the open on Tuesday, compounding the pressure on the police and Prime Minister Theresa May to explain them. What has become clear since the Saturday night assault is that again and again, the young men who killed seven people before they were shot to death by the po- lice had been reported to law en- forcement authorities, bumping into what should have been the country’s security net, only for those signals to be played down, ignored or missed. The latest revelations have placed Mrs. May, a former home secretary who was in charge of counterterrorism for six years be- fore taking over as prime minister last year, under intense scrutiny two days before a general elec- tion. Even her own foreign secre- tary, Boris Johnson, a former Lon- don mayor, voiced the question many here are asking. “How on earth could we have let this guy or possibly more through the net — what happened?” he asked in an interview on Sky News. Some of the missed warnings were especially glaring because Despite Warnings, London Attackers Slipped By By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI and KATRIN BENNHOLD Continued on Page A9 Pressure Rises on Prime Minister to Explain Missed Signals A U.S.-backed force made up of Syrian Kurdish fighters and Arab militias said it had begun an offensive. PAGE A6 Battle to Rid Raqqa of ISIS The stonework that made Italy’s Cinque Terre famous prevents the towns from sliding into the sea. PAGE A4 INTERNATIONAL A4-10 Reviving a Dying Art Testimony began in the trial of Michelle Carter, who is accused of goading her boyfriend into killing himself. PAGE A12 NATIONAL A11-19 ‘Sick Game’ by Text Message A man was charged with wounding a boy on his birthday when a gunshot went astray in the Bronx. PAGE A20 Arrest in Shooting of Boy, 5 Experts question the long-term benefits of the administration’s plans for public- private infrastructure projects. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-7 Paying the Partnership Tab Adnan Khashoggi, who grew hugely rich in the 1970s and ’80s and was known for gaudy excess, was 81. PAGE A24 OBITUARIES A24-25 High-Living Saudi Arms Trader Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A27 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 The sudden popularity of cold brew is changing the coffee business, from indie cafes to Starbucks, and challenging traditional notions of what truly makes a good cup. PAGE D1 FOOD D1-8 A Jolt of Summer As colleges and universities face trou- bling financial numbers, institutions search for ways to fill the skills gap and retain at-risk students. SECTION F SPECIAL SECTION Higher Education Everything follows the money on Live.ly, a platform on which teenagers cash in on celebrity status and fans pay for the illusion of intimacy. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-7 Life, Streamed for Profit YOAN VALAT/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY A man who wielded a hammer, shouting, “This is for Syria,” was shot and wounded Tuesday near the cathedral entrance. Page A9. Attack on a Paris Officer at Notre-Dame SAN FRANCISCO — Uber has fired 20 employees over har- assment, discrimination and in- appropriate behavior, as the ride- hailing company tries to contain the fallout from a series of toxic revelations about its workplace. Uber disclosed the termina- tions on Tuesday at a staff meet- ing at its San Francisco headquar- ters, according to an employee who attended the event but was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The firings, which occurred in the last few months, stem from an internal in- vestigation into Uber’s workplace, the employee said. The company did not name the people who were fired, but some were senior execu- tives, the employee said. The firings were aimed at tack- ling what many at Uber say are deep-seated management and cultural issues, which have made the company a cautionary tale for what can go wrong with Silicon Valley’s often freewheeling corpo- rate culture. Uber has been a lightning rod because of its ag- gressive chief executive, Travis Kalanick, who has flouted rules and regulations to turn the com- pany into a nearly $70 billion be- hemoth. Uber’s difficulties have revived questions about how the tech industry treats women and employees in general — and whether start-ups can recover from such stumbles. “You only terminate 20 people after you’ve determined after an investigation that there is some- 20 FIRED AS UBER FACES ITS FLAWS 2 Inquiries of Workplace Gone ‘Very Wrong’ By MIKE ISAAC Continued on Page A15 The New Jersey governor’s race is set, with Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, set to take on Kim Guadagno, the Republi- can lieutenant governor. PAGE A20 NEW YORK A20-23 Voters Pick Front-Runners Scooter Gennett hit four homers, tying a single-game record, and had 10 R.B.I. as the Reds routed the Cardinals. PAGE B11 SPORTSWEDNESDAY B8-12 Gone, Gone, Gone, Gone Late Edition VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,621 © 2017 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2017 Today, morning drizzle, clouds, then some sunshine, warmer, high 67. To- night, partly cloudy, low 54. Tomor- row, some sunshine, then clouds, high 70. Weather map, Page C8. $2.50
