Los Angeles Times - 23.08.2019

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(800) LA TIMES

Founded Dec. 4, 1881

Vol. CXXXVIII No. 263

LOS ANGELES TIMES (ISSN 0458-3035)

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Printed with soy-based ink on recycled newsprint from wood byproducts.

“Fleabag”:In the Aug. 22
Envelope section, an article
about Phoebe Waller-
Bridge, creator and star of
the TV series “Fleabag,” re-
ferred to director Harry
Bradbeer as Harry Brad-
bury.

Endeavor Content:In the
Aug. 17 Calendar section, an
article about Endeavor Con-
tent said the company has

sold or invested in more than

100 films and shows annu-

ally. That number is to date,

not annual.

Malibu rebuilding: In the

Aug. 5 Section A, an article

about rebuilding in Malibu

after the Woolsey fire said

650 homes had burned in-

side the Malibu city limits

during the fire. An estimated

480 homes burned in Malibu.

FOR THE RECORD

WASHINGTON — Suc-
cumbing to bipartisan pres-
sure, the White House aban-
doned plans Thursday to cut
billions of dollars from the
State Department budget
for foreign aid, several offi-
cials said.
Aproposal to freeze as
much as $4 billion in aid ap-
proved by Congress was
under consideration by
Mick Mulvaney, director of
the Office of Management
and Budget. Freezing the
funds would affect numer-
ous U.S.-backed projects
around the globe, including
development, peacekeeping
missions, health and educa-
tion programs, and human
rights initiatives.
The administration ar-
gued the cuts would help
whittle down a burgeoning
deficit, although foreign aid
is a tiny percentage of the
federal budget. Slashing for-
eign aid is in keeping with
President Trump’s “Ameri-
ca first” philosophy of disen-
gaging from many interna-
tional endeavors.
But critics said the shift
would hurt America’s stand-
ing overseas and reduce its
ability to diplomatically in-
fluence other countries.
The proposed cut
“undermines our national
security interests and em-
boldens our adversaries,”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-
S.C.) and Rep. Hal Rogers
(R-Ky.) wrote to Trump last
week.
The mechanism under
consideration is called a re-
scission because it rescinds
money already approved by
Congress. The administra-
tion planned to submit it be-
fore Congress had time to
act ahead of the end of the
fiscal year next month. The
funds would then return to
the U.S. Treasury.
On Thursday, a day after
he hinted he was having sec-
ond thoughts, Trump

backed down and ordered

the plan dropped. His deci-

sion was praised by mem-

bers of Congress and activ-

ists who support greater

U.S. engagement overseas.

“There’s bipartisan con-

sensus in Congress over the

critical role foreign aid plays

in ensuring our national se-

curity and global leader-

ship,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk

Grove), a member of the

House Foreign Affairs Com-

mittee, said on Twitter.

“Slashing these funds would

have been shortsighted.”

“After weeks of internal

deliberations, smart policy

has clearly won the day,”

said Liz Schrayer, president

of the U.S. Global Leader-

ship Coalition, which pro-

mote U.S. development proj-

ects.

Secretary of State

Michael R. Pompeo ac-

knowledged last-minute re-

consideration of the pro-

posed cuts.

“What I have consistently

said with respect to every

penny the State Depart-

ment spends, including our

foreign assistance budget, is

we’ve got to get it right,”

Pompeo told reporters

Thursday in Ottawa, where

he met with Canadian Prime

Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Every single dollar we

take away from the taxpay-

ers I want to make sure we’re

deploying properly,” Pom-

peo added.

“And this discussion that

we’re having on rescission

certainly is part of that big-

ger discussion.”

Feeling heat,

Trump won’t

cut foreign aid

By Tracy Wilkinson

The White House

had planned to freeze

as much as $4 billion

in global assistance.

“WE’VE GOTto get it

right,” said Secretary of

State Michael Pompeo.

Carolyn Kaster Associated Press

getaway since the time of

Napoleon, belies the ten-

sions roiling much of the in-

dustrialized world.

Global markets are slow-

ing in part due to the damag-

ing trade war between the

U.S. and China, the world’s

two largest economies. A

wave of nationalism, partly

fed by fear of migration from

Africa, is imperiling demo-

cratic leaders across Eu-

rope. And new threats to

global security abound from

Afghanistan to Kashmir,

from Syria to the South

China Sea.

This will be the first G-

summit for the new pro-

Brexit British prime min-

ister, Boris Johnson, still a

wild card on the world stage.

Johnson’s pledge to quit the

European Union on Oct. 31

—with or without an agree-

ment — threatens to desta-

bilize the world’s fifth-larg-

est economy and reignite

tensions between Ireland

and Northern Ireland.

It also will be the last

summit for Giuseppe Conte,

who resigned as Italy’s

prime minister Tuesday

rather than face an election

demanded by Matteo

Salvini, an anti-immigration

nationalist whose popu-

larity has continued to rise.

Conte is expected to attend

in a caretaker role.

Germany’s powerful

chancellor, Angela Merkel, is

coming as a lame duck. She

is not running for reelection,

and her country’s economy

—the largest in Europe — is

in danger of slipping into re-

cession. Japan’s prime min-

ister, Shinzo Abe, is preoccu-

pied with a bitter trade dis-

pute with South Korea, an-

other close U.S. ally.

Democratic leaders

across Europe also are in-

creasingly worried about

Iran’s growing presence in

Syria and a resurgent Islam-

ic State in Iraq and Syria,

months after Trump de-

clared the terrorist group

effectively destroyed and

authorized a drawdown of

U.S. forces.

The volatility is occurring

as Trump largely dismisses

international alliances and

cooperation in favor of his

“America first” policies, cre-

ating a vacuum in global

leadership, according to his

critics.

“The whole idea of world

order is something that

these other countries think a

lot about, are quite preoccu-

pied with. And they’re wor-

ried about how to sustain it

without American leader-

ship for world order,” said

Jon Alterman, a global secu-

rity expert at the Center for

Strategic and International

Studies, a nonpartisan

Washington-based think

tank.

According to the White

House, Trump will meet

with most of the leaders one-

on-one in Biarritz. He’ll dis-

cuss Brexit with Johnson

and is likely to press Macron

to give greater support to

U.S. efforts against Iran.

Macron opposed Trump’s

withdrawal last year from

the Iran nuclear accord and

has sought to unify the other

G-7 countries around a

strategy aimed at keeping

the agreement intact.

Officials said the presi-

dent will press Merkel to

increase German defense

spending, a longtime irri-

tant for Trump, and push

Canadian Prime Minister

Justin Trudeau over trade

disputes over maple syrup,

metals and other commod-

ities, another regular com-

plaint. North Korea prob-

ably will be on the agenda

when Trump meets Abe.

Trump also is scheduled to

meet with a leader who is not

a G-7 member, Prime Min-

ister Narendra Modi of In-

dia, which is locked in an es-

calating conflict with Paki-

stan over Kashmir.

“In principle, especially

with the Chinese getting

more powerful and the Rus-

sians in decline, the G-

should be the guys that

really get [along] and they

just don’t,” said Ian Brem-

mer, president of the Eur-

asia Group, a global risk-as-

sessment firm in New York.

“It’s a very dysfunctional

group. They can’t agree on

climate, trade, technology —

these advanced economies

should have common cause,

and it’s not just because of

Trump that they don’t. A lot

of these countries are in-

creasingly divided.”

But Trump has helped

lead the dysfunction.

At his first G-7 summit in

May 2017, in Sicily, Italy, he

rattled the other nations

with threats of trade tariffs,

his announced withdrawal

from the Paris climate ac-

cordand his vow to pull out

of the Iran nuclear deal.

When the other six leaders

walked to a final group

photo, he insisted on taking

a golf cart.

Hours after last year’s

summit, in Quebec, Canada,

Trump abruptly withdrew

from the final joint commu-

nique — previously a largely

symbolic formality — in a fit

of pique because he was of-

fended by Trudeau’s post-

summit news conference.

He slammed the Canadian

leader on Twitter as “very

dishonest & weak.”

In the last two months,

Trump threatened to im-

pose tariffs on billions of dol-

lars of imports from China

next month, ratcheting up

the trade war and unnerving

global markets. Trump in-

sists that only China pays

the higher costs — a claim

most economists reject —

but he later delayed the tar-

iffs until mid-December to

spare U.S. consumers price

hikes before Christmas.

Although his efforts to

persuade North Korean dic-

tator Kim Jong Un to give up

his nuclear weapons have

gone nowhere, Trump has

shrugged off Kim’s repeated

short-range missile tests in

recent weeks. And the presi-

dent has refused to offer

support for pro-democracy

protesters opposing Chi-

nese rule in Hong Kong, call-

ing only for a “humane” solu-

tion to the escalating crisis.

If Trump pushes the

other leaders to readmit

Russia to the G-7, despite its

continued occupation of

Crimea, it probably will

dominate headlines from

Biarritz and sow further

discord among traditional

allies.

“Putin committed a mor-

tal sin. He crossed the

brightest red line and invad-

ed a neighboring territory,

which hadn’t happened in

Europe since World War II,”

said Burns. “What message

would it send to just rein-

state him? It would mean he

wouldn’t have paid a price.”

Macron publicly rejected

reports that he agreed with

Trump on reinstating Rus-

sia, saying that the situation

in Ukraine must be resolved

first. Merkel is also likely to

oppose readmitting Russia.

Macron also has pushed

the G-7 to act as a counter-

weight to authoritarian gov-

ernments, reaching out to

Trump — largely without

success — for support.

“They don’t want to have

six plus one. They want sev-

en,” said Heather Conley,

who directs the Europe pro-

gram at the Center for Stra-

tegic and International

Studies. “Now more than

ever, they need a unified

voice on economic chal-

lenges and global chal-

lenges. There is just no one

now that has sufficient

horsepower to move them.”

The best other leaders

can hope for from Washing-

ton, at least while Trump is

in office, is not to get in the

way, Alterman said.

“Their ambition with the

United States isn’t to get

American help,” he said.

“It’s to get American acqui-

escence.”

But in recent days,

Trump has reminded other

leaders of his need to be

the protagonist in every plot

line and his penchant for

disruption.

After tweeting his plan to

meet with Johnson on the

sidelines of the G-7, Trump

told reporters that he agrees

with Johnson’s complaints

that the European Union

has been too tough on Brit-

ain as it seeks to exit the

28-nation bloc that Trump

once described as a “foe” of

the U.S.

“This will be Trump’s

first time seeing Boris John-

son as prime minister, and

it’s no secret the two get

along,” said Rachel Rizzo, a

Berlin-based adjunct fellow

at the Center for a New

American Security, a Wash-

ington think tank. “It’s likely

he’ll say something that sig-

nals support for the U.K. and

blames the EU for the on-

going Brexit mess. Trump

loves admonishing the EU

whenever he gets the

chance, and this weekend

should be no different.”

Macron and Merkel,

Rizzo said, have gotten used

to Trump’s behavior and,

despite public expressions

of optimism, at least from

Macron, are no doubt keep-

ing their expectations for

the summit low.

“It’s now more surprising

to everyone when he actually

behaves,” she said. “It’s a sad

commentary on the current

state of the transatlantic

relationship.”

SUNBATHERSask French police officers in Biarritz whether they will be allowed to surf while leaders from

the Group of 7 meet in the resort town. The serene backdrop belies the tensions roiling much of the world.

Francois MoriAssociated Press

Trump stays a wild card

as fractious G-7 meets

[G -7, from A1]

‘They can’t agree

on climate, trade,

technology —

these advanced

economies should

have common

cause, and it’s not

just because of

Trump that they

don’t.’

—Ian Bremmer,

president of the Eurasia

Group, on the G-7 nations

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