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DealBook|Morning Agenda: Trump’s Approach to the Economy, Starbucks Chief to Step Down – New York Times
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An employee waited for President-elect Donald J. Trump to speak at a Carrier plant in Indianapolis on Thursday. Credit A J Mast for The New York Times Donald J. Trump has managed to keep about half of the 2,000 jobs at Carrier that Indiana stood to lose, and there is more to come, he said. While touring the factory floor at the heating and cooling company on Thursday, Mr. Trump indicated that he intended to follow through on pledges to impose stiff tariffs on imports from companies that move production overseas and ship their products back to the United States.
The approach he took to the Carrier deal, however, was akin to intercepting a driver on his way to his car in a parking garage and trying to persuade him to stay parked longer, Justin Wolfers writes.
But there is a reason parking businesses dont do that. There are many more potential customers outside the garage, and they can attract them by offering a more convenient experience.
A parking garage stays full and an economy stays healthy only if they are constantly refreshed, Mr. Wolfers says. It remains to be seen how Mr. Trump might focus resources on the potential entrepreneurs who could open businesses and refresh the economy.
Continue reading the main storyMr. Trumps embrace of the Wall Street elite has already been noted and, indeed, Goldman Sachs executives do have a tradition of taking leading roles in public service, but another theme in his cabinet is a lack of directly relevant policy experience. There are exceptions, but Mr. Trump seems to be betting that nuts-and-bolts experience running government agencies just doesnt matter, Neil Irwin writes.
It seems that the swamp being drained is the one inhabited by wonkish technocrats who have devoted their careers to the details of policy making.
In Mexico, the uncertainty that has rattled the countrys economy since Mr. Trumps election has increased after the governor of the central bank, Agustn Carstens, said he would leave next July. Mr. Carstens will leave the Bank of Mexico, where he has been governor for seven years, to lead the Bank for International Settlements, which acts as a bank of central banks.
Quotation of the Day
Its unbelievable to us in Italy that wed be comparing Berlusconi to an American president.
Oreste Pollicino, a professor of constitutional law at Bocconi University in Milan. Silvio Berlusconi, who served nine years as Italys prime minister, faced calls to divest his business empire, just as Mr. Trump does now. But he retained majority ownership and installed his offspring in oversight positions.
Starbucks Chief to Step DownHoward Schultz, who some might consider the Steve Jobs of coffee, will step down as chief executive of Starbucks next year.
He will hand over the reins at the words largest coffee business to Kevin Johnson, the company president and a longtime board member.
The move is likely to renew speculation about whether Mr. Schultz plans to enter politics. He is an outspoken Democrat and has made his company a vocal part of the national conversation on issues like gun violence, gay rights and race relations.
The company had already been signaling its intent to carry out a succession plan. Mr. Johnson was given oversight of day-to-day operations in the summer and he has been on a listening tour with employees over the last year.
Coming UpThe Labor Department will publish data on hiring and unemployment for November. The report is expected to show 175,000 jobs added and an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. A very weak number could affect the Federal Reserves decision on interest rates in December.
Continue reading the main story
Bill Clinton praises Clinton Global Initiative in sendoff address – CNN
Story highlightsBill Clinton gave his final speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on WednesdayRepublicans have tried to turn the Clinton Foundation into a blemish against Hillary ClintonBill Clinton, in what aides said was a speech he wrote himself, stressed what CGI — which is part of the foundation and matches funders with causes — has accomplished over the last 15 years. He said in August that this month’s CGI meeting would be his last, and he plans to step down from the foundation’s board of directors if Hillary Clinton wins in November.”People may tell you you’re making incremental change. But look back after 11 years and see what the aggregate is,” the former president said. “None of this could have happened without the belief that progress is possible.”Advisers said Clinton hoped that the speech will provide a strong rebuttal to what he sees as partisan attacks on his foundation. He did not explicitly bring up how it had been injected into the 2016 campaign, but the 42nd president did hint at the criticisms.”This is a time when this sort of talk is not in fashion all over the world,” Clinton said. “It’s kind of a crazy time.”Republicans have portrayed the Clinton Foundation as a blemish against Hillary Clinton as she runs for president. The foundation has pushed back against the attacks, but questions about the foundation continue to hamper Clinton’s campaign with some voters.Despite serving as president for eight years, Bill Clinton has said his work with the foundation has been the work of his life. He told staffers earlier this year that leaving the foundation would be as painful as a “root canal” and told NPR earlier this week that he would have “paid more to do this job.””I’ve had this job longer than I ever had any job and I’ve loved it,” Clinton said. “And you know we always say in response to our critics — and nobody in my family ever took a penny out of this foundation and put millions of dollars in — but I would have paid more to do this job. It was the most fun thing I think I’ve ever done.”This year’s CGI — the final gathering — has been a slightly different than past meetings. Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama have both declined to attend, something they both did in past meetings.
Quiet Fixer in Donald Trump’s Campaign: His Son-in-Law, Jared Kushner – New York Times
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Jared Kushner, second from left, the son-in-law of Donald J. Trump, with his wife, Ivanka Trump, the day that Mr. Trump announced his presidential campaign last year at Trump Tower. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times International diplomacy is a world of careful rituals, hierarchy and credentials. But when the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, wanted to communicate with Donald J. Trump, he ended up on two occasions in the Manhattan office of a young man with no government experience, no political background and no official title in the Trump campaign: Jared Kushner.
Mr. Kushner held court at length with Mr. Dermer, doing his best to engage in the same sort of high-level conversation that the ambassador conducted with career diplomats and policy experts from Hillary Clintons campaign.
A 35-year-old real estate developer, investor and newspaper publisher, Mr. Kushner derives his authority in the campaign not from a traditional rsum but from a marital vow. He is Mr. Trumps son-in-law.
Yet in a gradual but unmistakable fashion, Mr. Kushner has become involved in virtually every facet of the Trump presidential operation, so much so that many inside and out of it increasingly see him as a de facto campaign manager. Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trumps daughter Ivanka, helped recruit a sorely needed director of communications, oversaw the creation of an online fund-raising system and has had a hand in drafting Mr. Trumps few policy speeches. And now that Mr. Trump has secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Kushner is counseling his father-in-law on the selection of a running mate.
It is a new and unlikely role for Mr. Kushner, a conspicuously polite Harvard graduate whose prominent New Jersey family bankrolled Democrats for decades and whose fathers reputation was destroyed, in a highly public and humiliating manner, by his involvement in electoral politics.
Continue reading the main storyNow, in a Shakespearean turn, Mr. Kushner is working side by side with the former federal prosecutor who put his father, Charles Kushner, in prison just over 10 years ago: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, whom Mr. Trump named as a top adviser. Mr. Kushner originally voiced objections to Mr. Trump about the appointment, but Mr. Kushner and Mr. Christie have since become wary allies in seeking to impose greater discipline on Mr. Trumps unconventional campaign.
Much about the Trump candidacy seems at odds with Mr. Kushners personality and biography: An Orthodox Jew and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Mr. Kushner is now at the center of a campaign that has been embraced by white nationalists and anti-Semites.
Mr. Kushners friends say he has expressed no concern to them about his father-in-laws behavior. On Saturday, Mr. Trump created a firestorm after posting an image on Twitter featuring a picture of Mrs. Clinton with a six-pointed star and a pile of cash, which had previously appeared on a website known for anti-Semitism. (On Monday, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that it was not a Star of David, but a sheriffs or a plain star.) Mr. Kushner believes that his father-in-laws respect for his Jewish faith is sincere, his friends said, and that the issue is not worth addressing.
Mr. Kushners role was described in more than two dozen interviews with friends, colleagues and campaign staff members, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could disclose interactions that were supposed to remain private. Mr. Kushner declined to be interviewed.
In many ways, he has filled a vacuum in a startlingly small organization that has had no official manager since the June ouster of Corey Lewandowski, which Mr. Kushner advocated, and that has fallen far behind in building a 50-state campaign. But his real power, his friends said, stems from his close relationship with Mr. Trump, who has long preferred the advice of family over political professionals and who sees in Mr. Kushner a younger version of himself.
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Mr. Kushner with his wife, Ivanka Trump, last month at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland. Credit Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Jared is an amazing son-in-law, and we are very close, Mr. Trump said in a statement, describing him as a big and bold thinker.
For both men the privileged sons of quick-tempered and domineering real estate tycoons the legacies of their fathers loom large. More than 30 years after Mr. Trump took command of the Trump Organization and built the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Trump Tower, Mr. Kushner tapped his own family empire, Kushner Companies, to buy a Fifth Avenue skyscraper and become part owner of a giant office complex near the Brooklyn waterfront.
My father looked at the deals Jared was doing and saw himself in those deals, Ms. Trump said.
But the parallels end there. Mr. Trump came to Manhattan to outstrip his fathers success; Mr. Kushner was seeking to redeem his familys tarnished name.
Continue reading the main storyThe elder Mr. Kushner built the familys real estate business into a multibillion-dollar empire of apartments and land until he was sent to federal prison in 2005 for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations, many of them to Democratic candidates.
The case involved a traumatic and tawdry family feud: At one point, Charles Kushner sought to retaliate against his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with the federal authorities, by hiring a woman to seduce him and videotape the encounter. Vile and heinous was how Mr. Christie, then the United States attorney for New Jersey, described the conduct.
Almost overnight, Mr. Kushner, 24 years old and still a student at law school, became the public face of the family business. On weekdays, he toured construction sites; on weekends, he flew to Alabama to visit his father in prison. The two remain exceedingly close: For years, Mr. Kushner used a wallet that his father had made in prison.
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Charles Kushner, second from right, built the Kushner familys real estate business into a multibillion-dollar empire of apartments and land until he was sent to federal prison in 2005 for tax evasion. Credit Dith Pran/The New York Times Mr. Kushner does not like to talk about his fathers travails, but they plainly left a mark on him. At his sons recent bris, he spoke of his wish for the newborn: May life be hard enough that you grow, but not so hard that you break.
In 2006, with the familys wounds from the scandal still fresh, Mr. Kushner bought The New York Observer, a small newspaper aimed at the citys social, political and real estate elite. A stranger to the culture of a publication that delighted in needling the rich and powerful, he initially floundered as a publisher, alienating reporters and cycling through a series of editors before landing on an old friend of the Kushner family, Ken Kurson. In April, the newspaper, which under its previous ownership made a sport of mocking Mr. Trump, enthusiastically endorsed his presidential bid.
Continue reading the main story
Officials: Texas student’s killing on campus ‘horrifying’ – Washington Post
AUSTIN, Texas A first-year University of Texas dance student whose body was found near the heart of campus was the victim of a horrifying and incomprehensible killing that was the first on school grounds since the bell tower mass shooting nearly 50 years ago, university officials said Thursday.
UT President Greg Fenves identified the victim as 18-year-old Haruka Weiser of Portland, Oregon, during a somber news conference, and said the unthinkable brutality against Haruka is an attack on our entire family. Students who spoke later in the day at a vigil that drew hundreds of people on the Austin campus said the killing will leave them unsettled during their nightly walks home.
Weiser was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Sunday leaving UTs drama building. She never made it to her dormitory that night, Assistant Austin Police Chief Troy Gay said.
Her roommates reported her missing shortly before noon the following day, and Weisers body was discovered Tuesday in a creek near the alumni center and football stadium, an area bustling with activity day and night.
The route to her dorm often took her along the creek where her body was recovered, and Gay said authorities knew the direction that she traveled based on what she texted to one of her friends.
Details of how Weiser died havent been released. An autopsy showed that she was assaulted, but Gay refused to elaborate, saying it was too early in the investigation.
Gay showed a surveillance video of a man he said was a suspect pushing a red or pink bicycle north of the stadium around 11 p.m. Sunday. Gay said there was no indication that the man in the video was a student or that he had sought to target Weiser specifically. He said authorities believe the man was in the area for at least a couple of hours, and that no weapon was recovered.
Weisers was the first on-campus homicide since former Marine Charles Whitman climbed to the top of UTs bell tower on Aug. 1, 1966, and opened fire, killing 16 people and wounding scores of others.
In response to this weeks slaying, the university has expanded programs in which police escort students across campus to ensure their safety. School officials also are urging students to walk in groups and avoid walking at night or while distracted with cellphones or headphones.
To our students, you expect and deserve to be safe, Fenves said.
UT asked Austin police to lead the investigation with the help of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which has assigned 20 state troopers to campus per day including some on horseback. DPS is also reviewing security on campus, including video monitoring, lighting and building security systems.
We would like the students and faculty to continue to have a high degree of awareness and vigilance until our suspect is arrested, said Gay, who added that law enforcement is offering a $15,000 reward for information.
In Oregon, Weiser was known for her dancing. As a sixth-grader in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, home to Nike, Weiser entered the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy and also attended Dance West, a dance company at the school geared toward the most talented students.
Dance West artistic director Julane Stites said Thursday that Weiser had a dancer in her soul and that she headed to the University of Texas with the help of the largest scholarship any Dance West student had received.
She adored ballet, but she was also an amazing modern dancer, Stites said. But you cant be an amazing modern dancer without strong ballet in my opinion, so she couldve gone any direction she wanted.
Weisers family said she had planned to take on a second, pre-med major soon and to travel to Japan this summer to see family, according to Fenves.
She was so happy to be a student at UT and was looking forward to the opportunity to perform again as a dance major, said Fenves, reading a statement from Weisers family. We know Haruka would not wish for us to be stuck in sadness but to keep living life to the fullest. That is what we will try to do in coming days.
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Associated Press writer Kristena Hansen contributed to this report from Beaverton, Oregon.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
First trial in death of Freddie Gray begins in a city still on edge – Washington Post
BALTIMORE Shortly after the first trial in the death of Freddie Gray got underway Monday, a judge asked more than 70 potential jurors several questions: How many had not heard of the case? About the curfew that followed? The citys settlement with Grays family?
As the judge scanned the room, not a single person spoke up. Few in Baltimore have been untouched by the events that left the city ablaze after Grays arrest and death in April. Seven months later, the impact of the 25-year-olds death was clear as jury selection began in the trial of William G. Porter, one of the six officers charged in the Gray case.
Chants from protesters standing outside in the cold, light rain filtered into the marbled courtroom: We wont stop until killer cops are in cellblocks.
The echoes of unrest are expected to linger as Porters trial continues through at least mid-December and the other officers charged in the case go to court next year.
Sharon Black, 66, a retired registered nurse, stood among the demonstrators holding a yellow banner that read, No police terror; black lives matter. She said that her group has been at the courthouse during each major development in the case.
An undated photo of Gray. (Family photo/Baltimore Sun)
Weve been out here, primarily to keep the pressure on, Black said. We want not only for these officers to be indicted, but that they be convicted and that they be jailed like the average people on the street. … We feel the Freddie Gray case is a symbol of police terror, police abuse and systematic racism.
[Fear and fury as first of six officers charged in Freddie Gray case goes on trial]
Steven Ceci, 41, a bartender who lives in the citys Waverly neighborhood, said the demonstrations were important to show Baltimore officials that people around the world have their eyes on Baltimore and to make sure justice is served. He said they would continue from the beginning of the first trial until the end of the last.
Inside the courtroom, Judge Barry G. Williams asked a series of questions to the jury pool before heading into a conference room to conduct individual interviews with potential jurors, along with attorneys from both sides.
After asking the potential jurors whether they had heard about the Gray case, the curfew related to the unrest that followed and the $6.4 million civil settlement Baltimore reached with Grays family, the judge turned to more nuanced matters.
Did prospective jurors know any of the nearly 200 possible witnesses in the case, which included more than 100 police officers and former Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts? (Only a few.)
Would any of them give more or less weight to the testimony of police officers? (Twelve said they would.)
Here’s what you need to know as the trial of William G. Porter, one of six police officers charged in the case of Freddie Gray, starts in Baltimore. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)
And did any of them have connections to law enforcement? (Twelve again indicated they did.)
In total, 29 almost half said they could not possibly serve on the jury, while an additional 38 said they had been victims of crime or had been investigated or previously incarcerated. And 26 said they had strong feelings about the charges Porter faces, including manslaughter and police misconduct.
[Key players in the Freddie Gray case]
The trial of Porter, 26, will be closely watched locally and across the country and comes amid renewed concerns about police use of force against minorities and after recent protests over shootings in Chicago and Minneapolis. Williams told jurors that the trial would begin in earnest in a day or two and would end by Dec. 17.
Gray and three of the charged officers, including Porter, are black. The other three officers are white.
Porter, wearing a navy suit and yellow tie, arrived with his attorneys shortly after 9 a.m., and prosecutors arrived about 10 minutes later. Porter sat with his attorneys taking notes on a yellow legal pad. Roughly 40 members of the media and public filled the courtroom along with potential jurors.
The legal proceedings are expected to provide fresh details about how Gray suffered a severe spinal injury while being transported in a police van. The trial also could bring the first public account from one of the officers charged in the case; Porters attorneys have said he is likely to take the stand.
[Complete coverage of the Freddie Gray case]
Prosecutors are expected to argue that Gray was critically injured because he was unbelted, with legs and arms restrained, during the drive. Prosecutors have said officers then ignored Grays pleas for medical help.
Defense attorneys, however, have said prosecutors rushed to judgment in filing charges against Porter and his colleagues. Porters attorneys will also probably rebut the medical examiners report that classified Grays death as a homicide, saying coroners relied too much on information from prosecutors to reach their conclusions.
The incident began the morning of April 12, when Gray fled after coming in contact with an officer. He was quickly apprehended. Officers found a small knife on him and he was placed under arrest, according to charging documents.
Gray who had asked for his inhaler and said he could not breathe while being detained was loaded into the back of a police van for transport to central booking, prosecutors allege. He was never properly belted into a seat as required by a police department policy, according to charging documents.
Precisely what officers knew about that rule, though, is likely to be a key point at the trial. The policy had taken effect April 3, and a message was sent to officers about it April 9 three days before Gray was arrested. Defense attorneys have argued that prosecutors cannot prove that Porter had knowledge of the policy change.
As the van continued with Gray inside, it made additional stops. During one, officers placed flexible handcuffs and leg shackles on Gray before loading him onto the floor of the van on his belly, prosecutors have said. After the van resumed its journey, prosecutors have said, Gray suffered the neck injury.
Prosecutors have not detailed exactly how Gray was injured, but medical examiners wrote in an autopsy report obtained by the Baltimore Sun that Gray may have climbed to his feet and then fallen as the van was making a turn, accelerating or decelerating.
Prosecutors have said that, at some point, the officer driving the van called dispatch for help in checking on Gray, which is when Porter arrived on the scene, according to charging documents.
Both officers went to the back to see Gray, who requested help, saying he could not breathe and twice asking for a medic, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors have said neither officer sought care for Gray.
Charging documents say Porter helped Gray to a seat in the back of the van. Porter then left the scene to assist in another arrest.
Gray was ultimately driven to the Western District police station, where he was found not breathing and in cardiac arrest, according to charging documents. He was hospitalized and died April 19.
Porter, who has been on the force since 2012, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. He has pleaded not guilty.
Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
Sign up for e-mail updates on the Freddie Gray case. Well e-mail you new Washington Post stories on the trial as theyre published.
Tensions rise as Russia says it’s deploying anti-aircraft missiles to Syria – CNN
Story highlights Turkey releases tape: “You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately” Rescued Russian co-pilot says “there were no warnings” before his plane was shot downRussia’s foreign minister says the plane’s downing “looks very much like a planned provocation”Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said on his ministry’s Twitter feed that the country would deploy S-400 defense missile systems to its Hmeymim air base near Latakia, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The missiles have a range of 250 kilometers (155 miles), according to the missilethreat.com website. The Turkish border is less than 30 miles away.
And Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian TV on Wednesday that Russia has “serious doubts” that Turkey’s downing of its warplane Tuesday was “an unpremeditated act.”
“It looks very much like a planned provocation,” Lavrov said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned what he said was the violation of Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes, calling the incident an infringement of his country’s sovereignty.
He charged Russia with propping up the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad — a regime he said was inflicting terrorism on its own people. His remarks came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of being “the terrorists’ accomplices” for shooting down a plane he claimed was on an anti-terrorism mission.
Erdogan disputed that claim in a speech Wednesday.
“There is no Daesh” in the area where the Russian planes were flying, Erdogan said, using another name for ISIS. “Do not deceive us! We know the locations of Daesh.”
An alarming wave of international turbulenceAnd experts agreed.
“None of the targets that … the Russians were going after had anything to do with ISIS. Those were all those Turkmen groups,” said CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.
The Turkmen minority in that part of northern Syria has strong ties to the Turkish government, which wants to afford them a degree of protection. Anyone who bombs that area attacks “our brothers and sisters — Turkmen,” Erdogan said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country doesn’t want to “drive a wedge” into its relationship with Russia, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. And the foreign ministers of these two nations have already spoken by phone and plan to meet in person over the coming days, the news agency also reported, citing Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic.
Still, even as Erdogan has insisted Turkey doesn’t want to escalate the situation, the anger in his words — and those of Putin — showed that the conflict in Syria has now churned up a new and alarming wave of international turbulence.
The stakes are high in Syria, where the United States, Russia and a swarm of other global, regional and local forces are entangled in the civil war.
Turkey releases tapeTurkey, a NATO member, said it had repeatedly warned the Russian warplane, shooting it down only after it ignored several warnings and violated Turkish airspace.
Russia rejected that version of events, with the rescued co-pilot Capt. Konstantin Murakhtin telling state media reporters that “there were no warnings — not via the radio, not visually.”
“If they wanted to warn us, they could have shown themselves by heading on a parallel course,” Murakhtin said, according to the official Sputnik news agency. “But there was nothing.”
Russian officials have also asserted that the Sukhoi Su-24 bomber was attacked 1 kilometer inside Syrian territory.
But Erdogan said parts of the downed plane had fallen inside Turkey, injuring two people.
On Wednesday, Turkey’s military released an audio recording of what it says was its warning to the Russian warplane.
In one portion, a voice is heard saying: “This is Turkish Air Force speaking on guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace. Change your heading south immediately. Change your heading south.”
Russia has not yet commented on the audio.
The plane’s crewAdding to the tensions were questions about the fates of the two Russian pilots aboard the bomber.
Turkmen rebels operating in the area of Syria where the plane went down appeared to claim in a video that they shot both pilots to death as they parachuted toward the ground.
The Russian military said it believed one of the pilots was dead. The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the second pilot had been rescued and was safe.
The military also said a Russian marine was killed when a helicopter came under attack during the search and rescue efforts.
5 things to know about the downing of the Russian jet
Russia’s first acknowledged casualties in SyriaRussia announced awards for the service members involved in the incident.
The pilot who died, Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, was posthumously given the title Hero of the Russian Federation “for heroism, courage and valor in the performance of military duty,” the Kremlin said Wednesday on its website.
The marine who was killed during the rescue effort, Alexander Pozynich, was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage “for heroism, courage and valor in the performance of military duty,” and Murakhtin, the jet crew member who Russia said was rescued, also was awarded the Order of Courage, the Kremlin said.
The deaths are Russia’s first acknowledged casualties since it waded into the bitter Syrian conflict less than two months ago.
They highlight the risks in Putin’s decision to support Assad, coming less than a month after another player in the war, the terrorist group ISIS, claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt.
Obama: Turkey has the right to defend itself and its airspace
‘The importance of de-escalating the situation’U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Erdogan by phone Tuesday and “expressed U.S. and NATO support for Turkey’s right to defend its sovereignty,” the White House said.
“The leaders agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure that such incidents do not happen again,” it said.
But removing all risk of clashes in the crowded Syrian battlefield appears tricky, with regional foes like Iran and Saudi Arabia involved. Syria’s civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes and their country.
Opinion: Assad only winner after Russian jet downed
Expert: Putin is ‘a bully’ but also ‘rational’Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy, a senior official in the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said military-level contacts with Turkey would be terminated — hardly a move likely to help avoid future skirmishes.
Putin could also seek to hurt Turkey economically, analysts said.
“Turkey receives about 60% of its natural gas supplies from Russia,” said Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. “So there are things the Russians could do to make their displeasure felt.”
In the near term, the clash appears likely to have derailed French President Francois Hollande’s hopes of forming a broader coalition against ISIS — including the United States, Russia and others — in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Paris. Hollande is scheduled to visit Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
NATO survived Cold War, but downed jet provides biggest threat
Zeynep Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul, Barbara Starr reported from Washington, and CNN’s Don Melvin wrote and reported from London. CNN’s Greg Botelho, Michael Martinez and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
The Nation’s New Gun Rules Have Come At The State Level
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Significant Ideas 