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U(DF463D)X+#!"!@!=!: A match between Iraq and Saudi Arabia was the first major game on Iraqi soil since 1990, when international matches in Iraq were banned, mainly because of security issues. Basra Journal. PAGE A12 INTERNATIONAL A4-12 Soccer Diplomacy in Iraq For over a century, major teacher strikes, like the one that ended on Tues- day in West Virginia, have come as educators have been asked to deal with some of society’s greatest ills. PAGE A15 NATIONAL A13-19 Facing More Than Chalkboard More than a year after his death, the poet and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has become something of a secu- lar saint in the city of his birth. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 St. Leonard of Montreal Chris Mullin, the Red Storm men’s bas- ketball coach, shared his story of alcohol addiction as he preached the power of taking life one day at a time. PAGE B9 SPORTSWEDNESDAY B9-12 A Simple Mantra at St. John’s Thomas L. Friedman PAGE A27 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s sudden willingness to bar- gain with the Trump administra- tion over scrapping its atomic ar- senal surprised the world on Tues- day, setting in motion an unpre- dictable diplomatic dance with the United States and South Korea, but raising hopes that one of the most dangerous confrontations of the nuclear age could be defused. South Korean envoys who met with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, conveyed his position in a statement after a two-day visit to North Korea. They also said he would suspend all nuclear and missile tests if such talks took place. “The North Korean side clearly stated its willingness to denucle- arize,” the statement said. “It made it clear that it would have no reason to keep nuclear weapons if the military threat to the North was eliminated and its security guaranteed.” The statement said North Ko- rea had made clear that it wished for “a heartfelt dialogue with the United States on the issues of de- nuclearization and normalizing relations with the United States,” and that “while dialogue is con- tinuing, it will not attempt any strategic provocations, such as nuclear and ballistic missile tests.” The two Koreas also agreed to hold a summit meeting between Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae- in of South Korea on the countries’ border in late April and establish a telephone hotline before then, linking the two leaders directly, Mr. Moon’s office said. North Korea, which has been saying its nuclear weapons are nonnegotiable, did not immedi- ately provide its own version of what Mr. Kim had offered. That initial silence fed cautions that he was raising premature optimism, or perhaps strategizing to buy time. But it seemed unlikely that the South Korean delegation would have publicized such an offer Offer From North Korea To Enter Nuclear Talks With U.S. Raises Hopes By CHOE SANG-HUN and MARK LANDLER The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, met with a South Korean envoy on Monday in Pyongyang, the North’s capital. KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY Continued on Page A10 South Korea Says Kim Would Halt Missile Tests VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,894 © 2018 The New York Times Company WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018 salesforce.com/number1CRM Salesforce. #1 CRM. Source: IDC Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker, October 2017. Salesforce ranked # 1 for CRM Applications based on IDC 2017 Market Share Revenue Worldwide. 19.9% 8.4% 6.1% 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 H1 © 2017 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce.com is a registered trademark of salesforce.com, inc., as are other names and marks. Gary D. Cohn, President Trump’s top economic adviser, said on Tuesday that he would re- sign, becoming the latest in a se- ries of high-profile departures from the Trump administration. White House officials insisted that there was no single factor be- hind the departure of Mr. Cohn, who heads the National Economic Council. But his decision to leave came as he seemed poised to lose an internal struggle over Mr. Trump’s plan to impose large tar- iffs on steel and aluminum im- ports. Mr. Cohn had warned last week that he might resign if Mr. Trump followed through with the tariffs, which Mr. Cohn had lob- bied against internally. “Gary has been my chief eco- nomic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and re- forms and unleashing the Ameri- can economy once again,” Mr. Trump said in a statement to The New York Times. “He is a rare tal- ent, and I thank him for his dedi- cated service to the American people.” Mr. Cohn is expected to leave in the coming weeks. He will join a string of recent departures by senior White House officials, in- cluding Mr. Trump’s communica- tions director and a powerful staff secretary. Yet the departure of Mr. Cohn, a free-trade-oriented Democrat who fended off a number of na- tionalist-minded policies during his year in the Trump administra- tion, could have a ripple effect on the president’s economic deci- sions and on the financial indus- try. It leaves Mr. Trump surrounded primarily by advisers with strong protectionist views who advocate the types of aggressive trade Top Economic Adviser to Quit After Tariff Dispute By KATE KELLY and MAGGIE HABERMAN DEEPENING DIVIDE OVER TRADE Gary D. Cohn’s exit is a blow to free-trade proponents close to the president. News Analysis. Page A7. Continued on Page A7 SALISBURY, England — The gentle stroll from Zizzi’s, a restau- rant in the center of this sleepy ca- thedral town, to Sainsbury’s, a popular nearby supermarket, could scarcely be less remarkable. Turn right past the town library, through a covered alleyway, past the gym on the left, over a bub- bling mill stream and — 90 sec- onds later — you have arrived. Yet, on Sunday afternoon, this most brief and benign of walks may have been the setting for an attempted assassination reminis- cent of the most far-fetched Cold War skulduggery. It was the route that Sergei V. Skripal, a former intelligence offi- cial freed from a Russian prison as part of a celebrated 2010 spy ex- change, is believed to have taken with his daughter before both were found in a catatonic state on a bench outside Sainsbury’s. The British foreign minister, Boris Johnson, said the episode had “echoes of the death of Alex- In Quiet English Town, Echoes of Poisonings Past By PATRICK KINGSLEY and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA A tent covered the bench where Sergei V. Skripal, an ex-spy, and his daughter were discovered. DAN KITWOOD/GETTY IMAGES Continued on Page A6 WASHINGTON — As the United States and China look to protect their national security needs and economic interests, the fight between the two financial superpowers is increasingly fo- cused on a single area: technol- ogy. The clash erupted in public on Tuesday after the United States government, citing national secu- rity concerns, called for a full in- vestigation into a hostile bid to buy the American chip stalwart Qualcomm — a review that is of- ten a death knell for a corporate deal. The proposed acquisition by the Singapore-based Broadcom would have been the largest deal in technology history, creating a major force in the development of the computer chips that power smartphones and many internet- connected devices. But a govern- ment panel said the takeover could weaken Qualcomm and give its Chinese rivals an advantage. “China would likely compete ro- bustly to fill any void left by Qual- comm as a result of this hostile takeover,” a United States Treas- ury official wrote in a letter calling for a review of the deal. The fight over technology is re- defining the rules of engagement in an era when national security and economic power are closely intertwined. China, under President Xi Jin- ping, has started an ambitious plan to dominate mobile technol- ogy, supercomputers, artificial in- telligence and other cutting-edge industries, putting huge re- sources behind an effort that it considers crucial to the country’s government, military and econ- omy. Beijing wants to build its own technology champions and is en- couraging companies to acquire the engineering, expertise and in- tellectual property from big rivals in the United States and else- where. The aggressive push has set off U.S. and China Battle for Edge In Technology By CECILIA KANG and ALAN RAPPEPORT Continued on Page A14 WASHINGTON — An adviser to the United Arab Emirates with ties to current and former aides to President Trump is cooperating with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and gave testimony last week to a grand jury, accord- ing to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Mueller appears to be ex- amining the influence of foreign money on Mr. Trump’s political ac- tivities and has asked witnesses about the possibility that the ad- viser, George Nader, funneled money from the Emirates to the president’s political efforts. It is il- legal for foreign entities to con- tribute to campaigns or for Ameri- cans to knowingly accept foreign money for political races. Mr. Nader, a Lebanese-Ameri- can businessman who advises Crown Prince Mohammed bin Za- yed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the Emirates, also attended a January 2017 meeting in the Sey- chelles that Mr. Mueller’s investi- gators have examined. The meet- ing, convened by the crown prince, brought together a Rus- sian investor close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia with Erik Prince, the founder of Black- water and an informal adviser to Mr. Trump’s team during the pres- Adviser to U.A.E. Is Cooperating In Mueller’s Inquiry Into Russia This article is by Mark Mazzetti, David D. Kirkpatrick and Adam Goldman. Continued on Page A18 In the seemingly endless struggle between automation and artisanship, members of the bricklaying trade say they are not worried about losing out to robots — at least for now. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-8 Fending Off the Machines The borough that produces so many local beers and spirits is pouring a new product at Brooklyn Kura, the first sake brewery in New York State. PAGE D4 FOOD D1-8 Sake, Brooklyn-Style It sounds unlikely, but getting compa- nies to pay for the data they reap from people’s online lives could have salutary effects, Eduardo Porter writes. PAGE B1 Paid for Your Puppy Posts? The Justice Department sued California over state laws it says make it impossi- ble for immigration officials to deport foreign-born criminals. PAGE A14 Sanctuary Laws at Issue For decades, Alan Gershwin insisted that he was the unacknowledged (and look-alike) son of George Gershwin. Despite the skeptics, he made a career out of that claim. He was 91. PAGE A24 OBITUARIES A24-25 A Claim to a Famous Father WASHINGTON — From the day he took office, President Trump has vowed not to repeat what he regarded as the cardinal error of his predecessors in dealing with North Korea. He would not get drawn into a lengthy negotiation in which the United States offers concessions that keep the North Korean regime alive, while the North Koreans retain the key elements of their nuclear arsenal. “Whether you look at the Clinton administration, or the Bush administration or the Obama administration, it never worked out,” he said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “That was the time to have settled this problem — not now.” Whatever one thinks of Mr. Trump’s version of history, he now faces a prospect uncannily similar to that confronted by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. North Korea’s offer to put its nuclear weapons on the bargaining table opens the door to negotiations of unpredict- able length and inevitable com- plexity. And Mr. Trump will surely be pressured to make concessions, starting with North Korea’s perpetual demand that the United States withdraw all American troops from the Kore- an Peninsula. Mr. Trump would also be nego- tiating alongside South Korea, a close ally that is hungry for a diplomatic rapprochement with the North. That could constrain the maneuvering room for a president who has oscillated between issuing bellicose threats toward North Korea and voicing vague hopes that he and its leader, Kim Jong-un, could sit down and broker a deal. In his remarks on Tuesday, Mr. Trump leavened his familiar complaints about the situation he inherited from his predecessors with the hope that the latest North Korean overture might be different. NEWS ANALYSIS Trump Is in Familiar Predicament Continued on Page A10 By MARK LANDLER and DAVID E. SANGER Printed in Chicago $3.00 Variably cloudy north and east. Spotty morning snow showers. A mix of clouds and sunshine else- where. Highs in lower 20s north to 40s south. Weather map, Page A20. National Edition
