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Trump weakens ties between the US and Africa

Among the billboards that greet passengers arriving at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo airport is an advertisement for the Bank of China, which is among that country’s largest state-owned financial institutions.

“Bridging China-Africa cooperation with tailor-made financial solutions,” the sign reads.

The message reminded me of a discussion about Donald Trump with my seatmate, a man from Namibia (or Nambia, as Trump called it) in his fifties, on a flight to Johannesburg from New York, a day after the president, during a meeting at the White House with lawmakers, reportedly disparaged immigrants from Africa and Haiti.

While Trump insults Africa, China reaches out.

Trump debases the presidency, we agreed, “and he doesn’t do anything for economic growth,” added my seatmate, who, as it happens, manages the port at Walvis Bay, one of the busiest ports in Africa.

The tonnage at the port ebbs and flows with trade. If you run a port, the more trade, the better.

I asked my seatmate how in his experience, the U.S. in Africa compares with China in Africa. “The Chinese are out to make money,” he said. “They want to have the world’s biggest economy.”

If that’s China’s goal, Trump is providing an assist. Add to his latest remarks the ways – from withdrawing the Paris climate agreement and the Trans Pacific Partnership to embracing a travel ban that discriminates against Muslims – that Trump is isolating the U.S. at the same time as China ups its engagement with the world.

“To have insulted an entire continent in the most vile terms is manifestly harmful to our interests,” Reuben Brigety II, who was U.S. ambassador to the African Union from 2013 to 2015, told the Times.

The businessman who penned “The Art of the Deal” has yet to show he can be an opportunist when it comes to pursuing opportunities for anyone, including the U.S., besides himself. (Credit Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who in a 2016 interview, called Trump “a faker.”)

En route to Johannesburg, I read “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” the best-seller by Michael Wolff that claims to reveal the inside dope on the dysfunction that marked the administration’s first 100 days.

Commenting on what he terms the episodes of “ohmygodness” that emanate from Trump daily, “it is worth considering,” notes Wolff,” the possibility that this constant, daily often more than once-a-day pileup of events – each one canceling out the one before – is the true aberration and novelty at the heart of the Trump presidency.”

At the White House meeting, Trump reportedly used the word “sh*#hole” as an adjective to describe Haiti and some nations in Africa.

The comment generated a wave of revulsion and followed a year of Trump’s debasing the presidency with appeals to racists, a disregard of presidential norms against self-dealing, attacks on judges and a worldview that appears to be informed solely by cable news.

The word “sh*#hole” does not appear in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. It’s profanity and slang, I suppose. Of course, racism does appear in the dictionary and, of the time of this writing, was the third most looked up word in the past 24 hours. (You can find “sh*#hole” in Urban Dictionary.)

In the wake of Trump’s comment, people the world over took to Facebook and Twitter to call him out by, among other things, noting their living in places such as “South Shi*#hole” or, to ask, as the writer Peter Godwin did, whether “Nambia is a shi*#hole.”

As the posts suggest, the Trump presidency demands vigilance against what Masha Gessen, writing in The New Yorker, calls “the ongoing degradation of the public sphere.”

The news, Gessen notes, is not that the president “is a foul-mouthed racist – we knew that… the news is that he insists on dragging the rest of us down with him.” (David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick of the Times have attempted to compile a definitive list of Trump’s racist comments, dating to his years in New York and continuing through his asserting that the nation’s first black president was not born in the U.S.).

We can choose not to be degraded – to show the self-respect that is beyond the president. As the spokeswoman for African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki, noted, “The United States of America is a big country and the United States of America goes beyond just one man or one statement.”

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GOP Congress passes tax bill

Congress on Wednesday passed an overhaul of the U.S. tax code that supporters and opponents claim will benefit Americans. But they disagree on which ones.

Republicans say the measure, the biggest rewrite of the tax law in more than 30 years, will boost paychecks for middle-class households. Democrats contend the bill represents payback by Republicans to the party’s wealthiest donors.

Among other changes, the legislation will cut the rate on corporate taxes to 21 percent from 35 percent, lower the top rate paid by the highest earners to 37 percent from 39.6 percent, nearly double the dollar amount of the so-called standard deduction ($6,350 for single taxpayers in 2017), and expand both the tax credit for child care and the deduction for medical expenses.

The measure lowers the tax bill for owners of so-called pass-through businesses via a deduction of 20 percent.  (Pass-through entities constitute roughly 95 percent of U.S. businesses and sweep in everything from sole proprietors to law firms and hedge funds.)

The bill would limit, to $10,000, deductions for state and local taxes, curb deductions that homebuyers can take for the interest on mortgages, and reduce taxes on inheritances.

All but 12 Republicans voted for the measure, which Democrats opposed unanimously.

Here are a few of the reactions to the bill, which President Trump is expected to sign on Jan. 3.

President Trump: “The typical family of four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than $2,000.  They’re going to have $2,000, and that’s, in my opinion, going to be less than the average.  You’re going to have a lot more than that.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “If we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work.”

Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader: “There are only two places where America is popping champagne over the #GOPTaxScam: The @WhiteHouse & the corporate boardrooms, including Trump Tower.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan: “Tax rates are going down and paychecks are going up.”

Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas: “We will be cleaning up this mess and the blunders in this bill all of next year.”

Keith Hall, director of the Congressional Budget Office: “[The legislation] would reduce revenues by about $1,649 billion and decrease outlays by about $194 billion over the period from 2018 to 2027, leading to an increase in the deficit of $1,455 billion over the next 10 years.”

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, conservative economist: “Faster productivity growth will translate into more compensation — wages and benefits — for workers.”

Kimberly Clausing, liberal economist: “These tax cuts are unlikely to spur large increases in wages; careful cross-country evidence fails to find benefits to wages from corporate tax cuts.”

Stephen Myrow, a former Treasury official under President George W. Bush and now a policy adviser based in Washington: “Whether or not people feel it does something for them, it enables Republicans to reclaim the governing narrative they lost after failing to repeal Obamacare. People like winners.”

TJ Helmstetter, communications director of Americans For Tax Fairness: “This is not tax reform, it’s a money grab by the ultra-wealthy, including the multimillionaires in Congress and Trump’s own cabinet, who will benefit.”

Chad Moutray, chief economist, National Association of Manufacturers: “Our members are very happy about the tax bill as it’s written. You wouldn’t see that level of optimism if they didn’t think this was something that’s going to benefit them.”

Alec Phillips and Blake Taylor, analysts at Goldman Sachs: “We note that the effect in 2020 and beyond looks minimal and could actually be slightly negative.”

Dennis Mullenburg, CEO, Boeing: “The [tax bill] is the single-most important thing we can do to drive innovation, support quality jobs and accelerate capital investment in our country.”

Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve: “It’s not a gigantic increase in growth.”

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization: “The bottom line is that while tax cuts can help accelerate economic growth in some circumstances, they will not generate anywhere close to enough growth to fully offset the revenue losses they create.”

Vice Money:“Republicans argue that these measures will be good for economic growth, which slowed markedly after the Great Recession. Maybe. But they will also likely shrink the American middle class even further in the years to come, as American inequality hits levels once considered, well, Latin American.”

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Cyril Ramaphosa elected to lead South Africa’s ANC: reactions

South Africa’s ruling party elected Cyril Ramaphosa as its new leader on Monday, setting the stage for the passing of the country’s presidency from the embattled Jacob Zuma.

Ramaphosa, a lawyer, businessman and former colleague of Nelson Mandela who campaigned on a platform to root out corruption, unify the party and shore up South Africa’s economy, edged Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the president’s former wife, by fewer than 200 votes.

The rand surged against the dollar in response to the victory, as investors voiced relief at rejection of the populism espoused by Dlamini-Zuma and the prospect for reform following years of corruption that have scrambled South Africa’s prospects and led ratings agencies to lower their assessments of the country’s creditworthiness.

Still, the scale of South Africa’s challenges – including an economy that is growing about 1% annually and one in three workers unemployed – will confront Ramaphosa, who as head of the ANC is likely to become South Africa’s next president. He’ll also have to fend off threats from within the party, where he will be surrounded in the leadership by supporters of Dlamini-Zuma.

Here’s a sampling of reaction across South Africa and around the world:

Eusebius McKaiser, South African journalist and political analyst: “The central problem Ramaphosa will face as he takes the helm of the ANC is that the party is so politically damaged that he might find himself becoming the first ANC leader to lose a general election since South Africa became a democracy in 1994.”

Win Thin, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman: Ramaphosa “will not have a magic wand that can make South Africa’s structural problems vanish overnight.”

William Gumede, executive chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation, “Ramaphosa has a better chance of renewing confidence, not only in the markets but also inside the A.N.C., where reformers may now feel they have a place.”

Fatima Hlongeni, a community worker in Soweto who grew up there with Ramaphosa: “I’m happy that we now have a president of the ANC from Soweto. We hope that he can help to bring development here.”

Steven Friedman, political scientist at the University of Johannesburg: “He’s not the kind of muscleman politician that will go in and clean up. He’s more of a conciliator and bridge mender. There are all these wild expectations now.”

Richard Calland, professor at the University of Cape Town and expert on the ANC: “The ANC will struggle to rebrand itself as a party of the progressive center … the paradox is that Dlamini-Zuma lost but her faction won.”

Ben Payton, head of Africa Research at Verisk Maplecroft, a risk advisory firm in the U.K.: “It stretches credibility to imagine that Ramaphosa could win the ANC leadership without striking deals with key power brokers who seek to maintain a patronage-based political system.”

Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, one of South Africa’s two main opposition parties, and a former member of the ANC: “Nothing has really changed‚ the core of the corrupt premier league [referring to the party’s provincial leaders] is at the center of the organization.”

Zwelethu Jolobe, political scientist, University of Cape Town: “What we have seen here‚ however‚ is that there are mixed slates. Both camps [Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma] have people in the top six.”

Oscar Mabuyane, ANC chairperson, Eastern Cape province: “This will collapse factionalism in how we elect leaders. We think we got a collective leadership that will take us to 2019 (general elections).”

Adam Habib, vice chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand: “It is a split leadership team but maybe that is for the better. For those who worry about Ramaphosa being paralyzed‚ remember that he has both Mantashe [elected ANC national chairperson] and Mashatile [elected ANC treasurer general]‚ both of whom are politically astute. He has political support and should use it.”

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Alabama election marks a win for clarity

On Tuesday, the Republican stronghold of Alabama elected Doug Jones, a Democrat, to the U.S. Senate following a campaign marked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Roy Moore, his GOP rival. The outcome signaled that Republicans, led by Donald Trump, backed a candidate that even many of their own supporters (to their credit), rejected, exit polls showed.

Earlier on Tuesday, about 4,482 miles from Birmingham, French President Emmanuel Macron, hosted a climate summit in Paris. He did not invite Trump – a sort of time-out for the U.S. president after the latter backtracked in June from the international climate accord.

Taken together, the results and the rebuke make the week seem like a moment for hopefulness and clarity. Here, in our opinion, are five of the heroes who emerged: 

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: The Democrat from New York called on President Trump to resign and for Congress to investigate multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault against him. The president, who denies the claims (and, falsely, that he never met the women who leveled them), took to Twitter to attack Gillibrand as a senator who used to come “begging for campaign contributions… and would do anything for them.”

The senator (among others) termed Trump’s reply “a sexist smear” that was intended to silence her. “You cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office,” she said.

African-American voters in Alabama: Black voters made up 29% of the vote on Tuesday night, and they turned out overwhelmingly for Doug Jones, who won 49.9% of the vote. Ninety-eight percent of African-American women and 93% of men voted for Jones.

https://twitter.com/BurkeCNN/status/940798133579198464

That compares with 35% of white women and 27% of white men who voted for the Democrat. Turnout by black voters in the off-year contest topped that in the race for governor three years ago. “Following last month’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey, when African-Americans helped vault Democrats to victories, the Alabama race is another sign that the party’s most loyal voters are fired up,” the Times reported.

The Washington Post: On Nov. 9, reporters Stephanie McCrummen, Beth Reinhard and Alice Crites detailed allegations by Leigh Corfman, who said that Moore initiated a sexual relationship with her in 1979, when she was 14 and he was 32. Over the weeks that ensued, the Post reported on allegations by a total of eight women who described misconduct or sexual assault by Moore over a period of years. Seven of the women were teenagers at the time of the alleged misconduct; Moore was in his 30s. In the election on Tuesday, two-thirds of women who have children under the age of 18 supported Doug Jones, Moore’s Democratic opponent, giving him a 34-point margin among that group, exits polls showed.

Senator Richard Shelby: In 1994, the Republican from Alabama betrayed Democrats when he switched parties. On Sunday, he made up for it by saying publicly he “couldn’t vote” for Moore and would write in “a distinguished Republican name” instead. Shelby added that the found allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore “credible” and “believable.” The break with his party by the senior senator from the state helped to mark Moore as unfit to hold public office (or any office) on the eve of an election that sent the first Democratic from Alabama to the Senate since 1992.

Emmanuel Macron: The French president hosted a meeting of dozens of world leaders to take steps to address the threat of climate change without the participation of the U.S. government.

The One Planet Summit highlighted the world’s determination to meet climate goals regardless of a decision in June by the Trump administration to abandon the Paris accord. On Tuesday, Macron, called the decision by Trump “very bad news” and warned against complacency in the effort to rein in global warming. The French leader also noted that eight U.S. states have launched an initiative on clean transport.

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Trump cedes US leadership on trade

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies each presented their views in a pair of speeches on Friday that highlight the extent to which the U.S. in the Trump presidency is ceding leadership in trade.

President Xi Jinping of China, the world’s second-largest economy, discussed climate change, globalization, multilateralism and connectivity in an address on Friday to leaders of 21 countries who gathered in Vietnam for the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Council.

He spoke minutes after President Trump, who talked mostly about America and the indignities he contends it has suffered at the hands of trading partners.

Xi spoke of connection. “This is a new journey toward greater integration with the world and an open economy of higher standards,” he said. “We should uphold multilateralism, pursue shared growth through consultation and collaboration, forge closer partnerships, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.”

Trump listed grievances. He accused China of stealing intellectual property, muscling out private enterprise, hacking into the computer systems of U.S. companies, competing unfairly and failing to open markets for goods and services. “We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore,” Trump told the gathering.

Xi used the words “shared” and “community” eight times apiece. He used the word “open” 18 times, three times more than Trump, who used the word “community” once. Twice Xi mentioned “climate change,” which Trump never uttered.

The stance marked a turnabout from a day earlier in Beijing, where Trump flattered Xi and blamed his American predecessors for the imbalance in trade between the two countries.

Trump tends to talk tough when surrounded by the press. Alone with his fellow leaders, it seems, is another story. After meeting on the sidelines of the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump told reporters that he believed assurances by Putin that Russia “did not meddle in our election.”

Though Trump later appeared to walk back the suggestion that he placed more stock in the assurances of the former head of the KGB than he does in a determination by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election, the exchanges with both Putin and Xi suggest struggles by the self-proclaimed dealmaker to hold his own with counterparts.

Xi talked of China’s Belt and Road initiative, as part of which the country has pledged to spend more $1 trillion to build infrastructure across Asia, Africa and Europe over the next decade. As Anja Manuel, a former adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, noted recently in the Atlantic:

According to the CIA, 92 countries counted China as their largest exports or imports partner in 2015, far more than the United States at 57. What’s most astounding is the speed with which China achieved this. While the country was the world’s largest recipient of World Bank and Asian Development Bank loans in the 1980s and 90s, in recent years, China alone loaned more to developing countries than did the World Bank.

One result: There are now more than 10,000 Chinese firms (most privately owned) operating in Africa, up from 2,500 a decade ago, according to research by McKinsey & Co. Visit South Africa, to name one destination for Chinese investment, and you’ll see the evidence at construction sites and shops all around you.

At APEC, 11 nations, including Australia, Japan, Mexico and Canada, said they had achieved significant progress toward a revised trans-Pacific trade pact, which Trump withdrew from in March. America “has lost its leadership role,” Jayant Menon, an economist at the Asian Development Bank, told the Times. “And China is quickly replacing it.”

Which leaves the question how the smallness of the vision expressed by Trump helps the people who voted for him, particularly those in areas of the Midwest and Northeast that have experienced the trauma of the loss of jobs in manufacturing.

The U.S. imports more goods from China than it exports. The difference stood at $347 billion in 2016, a decrease of 5.5% from a year earlier. But the U.S. exports more services to China than it imports. The difference was $37 billion in 2016, up 12.3% from year earlier.

The surplus in services represents demand in China for such American exports as logistics, software, financial know-how and tickets to movies made in Hollywood. It reflects visits to the U.S. by people from China, and students who come to the U.S. from China to study.

“If our trade deficit for goods is somehow related to unfair trade practices, then how does Trump explain America’s large and growing surpluses for services,” Mark Perry, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, told the South China Morning Post in May.

Trump doesn’t say much about that surplus. Nor does he put forth or embrace efforts to bring college-educated graduates to Rust Belt cities that might benefit from an influx of productivity and capital.

Writing recently in the Harvard Political Review, Henry Sullivan Atkins cited the payoff in Pittsburgh of efforts to transform an economy that once relied on heavy manufacturing.

According to Atkins, “Pittsburgh offers a textbook example of successfully attracting these college-educated adults:  The number of city residents aged twenty-five and older with a college degree skyrocketed by 37.3 percent from 2000 to 2013.

Over roughly the same period, productivity among workers in the Pittsburgh region rose 10 percent, average annual wages increased 9 percent and the overall standard of living rose 13 percent.

“This demographic sea change didn’t occur in a vacuum; rather, it was the result of a series of careful policymaking decisions that came from the city,” Atkins writes. “Firstly, the city invested in providing a top-notch education for its residents, collaborating with Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh to transform Pittsburgh from the Steel City of the 1980s into a STEM juggernaut in fields like computing, robotics and biotechnology.”

In September, Trump directed the Department of Education to invest $200 million toward the teaching of science, technology, engineering and math in public schools. Tech giants, including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, added $300 million to the push.

“Where that money will be pulled from remains to be seen, but with around just 40 percent of schools currently teaching computer programming, it would be good if this push had some success,” noted Mallory Locklear for Engadget.

Credit Trump for jump-starting a partnership with potential for payoff in the form of college graduates, skills and jobs. Leadership takes a thousand such acts (and the investments that accompany them), but the approach hints at a way forward for the U.S. that has nothing to do with withdrawing from a world that has moved on.

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Plea shows Trump campaign knew of Russia ties

Among the evidence cited by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III against George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to President Trump’s campaign who has pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators, is a series of exchanges between Papadopoulos and campaign officials.

Papadopoulos admitted to lying to investigators about his relationship with a professor who claimed to connections with the Russian government and senior officials there who had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”

If nothing else, the correspondence establishes, as the Washington Post wrote on Monday, “that while senior Trump officials at times rebuffed or ignored Papadopoulos, they were well aware of his efforts, which went on for months.”

On April 27, 2016, Papadopoulos wrote to a high-ranking campaign official to discuss Russia’s interest in hosting then-candidate Trump. “Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right,” Papadopoulos said in an email to the unnamed official, according to a court filing.

Papadopoulos reiterated the message to the official in a message dated May 14, as well as to “another high-ranking campaign official” in a missive dated May 21.

Though Trump and the Russian president did not, as far as we know, meet during the campaign, on August 15, an unnamed campaign supervisor urged Papadopoulos to meet with the Russians off-the-record. “I would encourage you,” the official told Papadopoulos.

“Make the trip, if it is feasible,” Sam Clovis, another foreign policy advisor  who currently serves as a White House liaison to the Department of Agriculture, reportedly replied.

Papadopoulos also reportedly wrote to Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager, and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was indicted on Monday for tax fraud and money laundering in connection with sums he received for representing the pro-Russian government of Ukraine.

The White House on Monday tried to minimize Papadopoulos and his role, which Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters was “extremely limited; it was a volunteer position.”

Still, Trump touted Papadopoulos as a member of the campaign’s foreign policy team in a meeting in March 2016 with the Washington Post’s editorial board. (“He’s an energy and oil consultant, excellent guy,” the candidate said.)

The guilty plea provides investigators with a road map for their inquiry into whether Team Trump cooperated with the Russians to influence the outcome of the campaign. Whether Papadopoulos received a paycheck may be besides the point.

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Boeing and Bombardier battle beyond the border

A dispute between Boeing and Bombardier over trade rules is reverberating on both sides of the Atlantic.

The fight spilled into the open on Tuesday, when the Trump administration slapped a duty of 220% on imports of “C Series” aircraft built by Montreal-based Bombardier.

The manufacture of the planes, which can hold 150 passengers on flights up to 3,300 miles, relies unfairly on subsidies from the Canadian government, the Commerce Department said in ruling on a complaint filed by Boeing. The subsidies allow Bombardier to sell its planes to U.S. airlines at unrealistically low prices, Boeing charged.

Delta Air Lines, which has ordered 75 of the jets for delivery in 2018 – a deal valued at $6 billion – said the tax, which would add millions to the cost of each jet, would make the planes unaffordable. “We think it’s absurd,” the company’s chief executive told CNBC.

Consequences across the border and beyond

The ruling, which is subject to a final determination in February by the U.S. International Trade Commission, could result in reprisals against Boeing.

Canada said on Thursday it has suspended its purchase of 18 advanced fighter jets built by Boeing and that the company would not be considered for future procurements.

“Rest assured, we cannot do business with a company that is threatening us,” Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan told reporters.

Canada’s foreign minister accused the Trump administration of trying to block Bombardier from the U.S. market. “This is an unjust, punitive ruling,” said Chrystia Freeland, speaking before a dinner with her counterparts from the U.S. and Mexico, who were in Ottawa for talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The battle extended to Britain, where Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “bitterly disappointed” in the U.S. move and asked President Trump to urge Boeing to abandon its challenge, which threatens manufacturing jobs in Northern Ireland.

Bombardier is among the province’s largest employers. About 1,000 workers at a factory in Belfast assemble wings for the C Series.

Reflecting reality

May’s concerns reflect political reality for her Conservative Party, which since losing its parliamentary majority in June has depended on Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for key votes in the House of Commons.

That may be one reason U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said this week in Belfast that the maneuver by Boeing, which produces a range of military aircraft for the U.K., could “jeopardize” the company’s relationship with the country.

“This is not the kind of behavior that we expect from a long-term partner and I’ve made that very clear to Boeing,” Fallon said.

Leaders of Northern Ireland’s two main parties warned that the loss of jobs would be a blow to the economy and could undermine peace in the region.

“The security of our economy has and continues to be a crucial part of our efforts in delivering peace through prosperity,” Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP, and Michelle O’Neill, the leader of Sinn Fein, wrote in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence.

“At a time when we are striving to take the next steps in our work on the Peace Process, and resolve our current political difficulties, this issue creates a new and potentially critical factor,” they said.

Of course, Boeing collects subsidies, too. The company sells billions of dollars in aircraft to the U.S. military. Boeing also benefits from lending by the U.S. government that allows other countries to purchase the company’s planes at a discount.

On Friday, the World Trade Organization said it would examine allegations by Brazil that Canadian subsidies to Bombardier allow the company to compete unfairly against put Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer.

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Donald Trump doubles down on division

Donald Trump is back to trying to divide people, this time by attacking professional athletes who protest racism during playing of the national anthem.

Faced with the failure of yet another attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the divider-in-chief used a speech at a campaign rally on Friday in Alabama to ridicule African-American athletes.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired!’” Trump told the crowd, referring to players who kneel in protest, a gesture started last year by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

“When people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they’re playing our great national anthem,” added Trump, speaking about black athletes to an overwhelmingly white crowd. In Alabama.

The president later disinvited the championship Golden State Warriors from the White House after opposition to him by Stephen Curry, their star player. The comments come roughly a month after Trump refused to criticize white supremacists and fascists who rallied in Charlottesville.

“The strong contrast in language for a black man and a Nazi is very telling,” Leland Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver who is African-American, writes in a letter to the president. “Do you have any sense of decency or shame in what you say to the American people that are part of your duty to serve respectfully with dignity, presidentially?”

For decades, Trump has preferred division and demagoguery. The president is the same person who, as David Remnick noted on Saturday, began his career in real estate with a string of discriminatory housing practices and his career in politics with a racist questioning of Barack Obama’s birthplace.

It’s also the same person who in 1989 called for the execution of group of teenagers who were convicted – only to be exonerated – in the rape of a female jogger in Central Park.

Trump’s equivocation over racism in August led a series of business leaders to abandon him. On Saturday, NFL owners – a group not usually prone to protest – criticized the president for sowing divisiveness.

“The callous and offensive comments made by the president are contradictory to what this great country stands for,” said Jed York, the 49ers chief executive.

“Our country needs unifying leadership right now, not more divisiveness,” said Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins.

The division that Trump practices follows a pattern. The less he succeeds at changing laws – he has proved unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act, abrogate the North American Free Trade Agreement, build a wall along the border with Mexico or deter North Korea’s nuclear ambitions; all of which he pledged to do – the more he seeks to divide the country.

The divisiveness Trump sows highlights a desperation to hold a base of supporters who actually agree with him. That won’t be enough to remain president.

As Nate Silver has documented, the announcement by former FBI Director James Comey 11 days before the election that he needed to further examine Hillary Clinton’s emails probably cost her the election by erasing her lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida.

Trump knows this, too. One way or another, he will struggle to stay in office.

The question now is how soon do Republicans in Congress abandon Trump for Mike Pence, who, were he to become president in the event of impeachment or resignation of Trump, would still assure the GOP and its supporters the tax cuts they covet.

Trump may have won the election, but he has lost the country. As Melvin advises him, “If you can’t do the job then please step down and let someone else try.”

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Trump shows inability to get to yes

President Trump likes to tout his skills as a negotiator. He has said the U.S. would make great deals on trade and military hardware during his presidency.

But leaked transcripts of Trump’s calls with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull don’t exactly position the president as dealmaker-in-chief.

In their landmark book “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In,” Roger Fisher and William Ury outline six guidelines the authors, who founded the Harvard Negotiation Project, say can help both sides achieve more of what they want.

The guidelines appear below in italics, followed by ways that Trump failed to use them in his back-and-forth with Pena Nieto about paying for a wall along the border or his exchange with Turnbull about whether the U.S. will honor a promise by President Obama to accept 1,250 refugees who are currently detained in Australia.

Separate the people from the problem.

Negotiators should try to imagine the situation from the viewpoint of their counterpart.

Pena Nieto explains to Trump “the lack of margin” he has as president of Mexico to accept claims that his country will pay for the wall. But he also tells Trump that he understands the “small political margin” that Trump has “in terms of everything you said that you established throughout your campaign.

Seven times, Pena Nieto uses the phrase “I understand” to acknowledge Trump’s position.

Trump, by contrast, says “I understand” once, to tell Pena Nieto that he, Trump, understands Hispanic voters “and they understand me.”

The closest Trump comes to acknowledging Pena Nieto’s position comes when Trump tells him, “we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to.”

Focus on interests, not positions.

Draw out the interests that underlie your counterpart’s positions, with the goal of creating opportunities to explore tradeoffs.

To Trump’s credit, he asks Turnbull why it’s so important that the White House honor Obama’s promise to take the refugees. But Trump tells his counterpart, incorrectly, that it’s 2,000 people. Rather than answer the question, Turnbull corrects Trump, telling him it’s “not 2,000” but 1,250.

To which Trump replies that he’s also “heard like 5,000 as well,” without returning to the question he asked earlier. The exchange deteriorates from there.

Learn to manage emotions.

Be sure that you and your counterpart have opportunities to express any strong emotions that tie to your negotiation.

In his call with Turnbull, Trump expresses frustration after Turnbull suggests Trump can say that the agreement by his predecessor to accept the refugees “is not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.”

Trump agrees he will say that, adding, “I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made.”

Trump continues:

“As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcom [sic]. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous.”

Turnbull asks Trump if he would like to discuss Syria and North Korea.

“This is crazy,” Trump replies.

Turnbull thanks Trump for agreeing to honor the pledge. “It is very important to us,” Turnbull tells him.

Express appreciation.

Work to understand your counterpart’s perspective and communicate understanding of it through words and actions.

Trump does not convey to either of his counterparts that he understands their views. In contrast, Turnbull tells Trump that he understands Trump “is inclined to a different point of view” on the resettlement of refugees than Vice President Pence, who Turnbull said assured the Australians that the U.S. would honor the agreement to accept the refugees.

Put a positive spin on your message.

Communicate in a positive way, and speak only for yourself.

Pena Nieto stays positive. The call between Trump and Turnbull fills with acrimony and never recovers.

“Can you hear me out Mr. President” Turnbull asks Trump.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Trump replies.

Escape the cycle of action and reaction.

Rather than dig in, explore interests, invent options for mutual gain, and search for independent standards.

Besides trying to help Trump out of his bind by suggesting that Trump tell people he would not have agreed to resettle refugees if it were not for the promise by his predecessor. Turnbull adds that the exchange “requires, in return, for us to do a number of things for the United States.”

When Trump relents, Turnbull offers the prospect of returning the gesture in the future. “You can count on me,” he tells Trump. “I will be there again and again.”

“I hope so,” replies Trump, offering nothing.

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News

The CEO of the world’s second-largest energy company says he will drive a hybrid

The chief executive of the world’s second-largest energy company says his other car will soon be powered by a mix of gasoline and electricity in a sign that the world is going green.

Ben Van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, says he will switch this September to a plug-in Mercedes-Benz S550e hybrid from a diesel car, at least in part to reflect the reality of climate change and efforts such as the Paris climate agreement to combat it.

“The whole move to electrify the economy, electrify mobility in places like northwest Europe, in the U.S., even in China, is a good thing,” Van Beurden told Bloomberg TV. “We need to be at a much higher degree of electric vehicle penetration — or hydrogen vehicles or gas vehicles — if we want to stay within the 2-degrees Celsius outcome.”

Though symbolic, the announcement further cements a shift underway at Shell under Van Beurden’s leadership. In February 2016, the company acquired BG Group for $53 billion to create the world’s largest provider of liquefied natural gas. Two years earlier, Shell paid $5.4 billion for the LNG business of Repsol outside of North America.

Shell has estimated that worldwide demand for oil could peak as soon as a decade from now.

The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for oil will continue to grow worldwide until 2040, primarily because of a scarcity of substitutes that make economic sense in aviation, petrochemicals and trucking.

Still, demand for oil from passenger cars is expected to decline over the next quarter century despite a doubling in the number of vehicles, “thanks mainly to improvements in efficiency, but also biofuels and rising ownership of electric cars,” the IEA said in November.

Both the United Kingdom and France recently announced plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2040.

Volvo in June became the first major automaker to say it will end reliance on internal-combustion engines. All the models Volvo brings to market starting in 2019 will either be hybrids or powered by batteries.