The Wall Street Journal - 23.10.2019

** WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019 ~ VOL. CCLXXIV NO. 97 WSJ.com HHHH $4.

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Set to

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Russia, Turkey Reach Pact to Drive Kurds From Syria ‘Safe Zone’

KREMLIN/REUTERS

ALLIED: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed Tuesday to take joint control of

northeastern Syria along Turkey’s border, removing Kurdish militias and highlighting a rebalance of power as U.S. troops pull out. A

WASHINGTON—President

Trump is closer to his second

Election Day than his first,

and an impeachment probe

threatens his political future.

But inside Trump campaign

rallies, it’s still 2016.

At each rally, energy pul-

sates through a crowd that

waited hours to stand and

chant for a border wall, a

drained swamp and Hillary

Clinton’s incarceration. They

rejoice in the mention of ev-

ery electoral vote as Mr.

Trump recounts his victory,

state by state.

Mr. Trump’s rallies played a

central role to his first victory.

With an existential threat to

his presidency looming, they

are in many ways more im-

BYMICHAELC.BENDER

With Deviled Eggs, Jell-O Salad,

Church Volunteers Fight the Tide

iii

Funeral food is getting professional, but

sometimes a bean dish is the best salve

cades. Usually served after the

church service, the lunches are

a time-honored balm for griev-

ing families, giving them a

chance to linger over comfort

food with relatives and

friends. They conform with a

Beatitude from the Book of

Matthew. “Blessed are they

that mourn: for they shall be

comforted.”

Armed with deviled eggs,

fried chicken and Jell-O,

church volunteers are defend-

ing their turf against the

forces of change.

In recent years, many

churches have outsourced the

work to professional cater-

ers—in part due to fears of

running afoul of food-hygiene

Please turn to page A

When someone dies in Ta-

bor, Minn., Cheryl Novak

knows what to do.

“I make my bean hotdish

because it’s a goer,” Ms. Novak

says. It contains hamburger,

bacon, kidney beans, butter

beans, Bush’s baked beans,

ketchup, brown sugar, mus-

tard, vinegar and onions finely

minced so people who don’t

like onions won’t notice them.

“The secret part of mine—

not everybody does it because

of the fat—is I’ll throw in the

bacon grease,” she says.

Ms. Novak, a registered

nurse, has volunteered to

make funeral lunches at her

church, Holy Trinity, for de-

BYJAMESR.HAGERTY

Big events let Mr. Trump ‘cut through all of the noise,’ says a

campaign official. It also allows the campaign to collect data and

sign up volunteers. Above, a crowd in Dallas last week.

ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Biogen Revives Hopes

For Alzheimer’s Drug

Biogen Inc. plans to seek

regulatory approval early next

year for an Alzheimer’s dis-

ease drug that had been con-

sidered a lost cause after the

company pulled the plug on

late-stage studies because of

disappointing results.

The surprising about-face,

which Biogen made public on

Tuesday, came after the com-

pany took a closer look at

study data that it didn’t have

when it halted efforts in

March. The new data indicated

the drug did work in patients

who received the highest dose

in one of the studies.

The second look triggered

conversations with regulators

that breathed new life into the

drug, while raising the hopes

of those confronting Alzhei-

mer’s memory loss, reviving a

BYJOSEPHWALKER

portant than ever. Rallies let

the president “cut through all

of the noise” in Washington

about impeachment and speak

unfiltered to his supporters,

said Tim Murtaugh, the

Trump-campaign communica-

tions director.

“Rallies were always an in-

tegral, main part of the cam-

paign strategy, but now it

makes communicating with

people directly that much

more important,” he said. “It’s

also important for the presi-

dent’s supporters to see him

out there fighting.”

The rally strategy repre-

sents a bet that preserving

such a base-pleasing dynamic

outweighs the need to provide

a fresh message to skeptical

voters. Keeping his core sup-

Please turn to page A

long-running hypothesis about

its molecular roots and adding

more than $13 billion to Bio-

gen’s market capitalization.

The Cambridge, Mass., bio-

technology company had been

discussing its new data analy-

ses with the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration since

June, Biogen Chief Executive

Michel Vounatsos said in an

interview. But it wasn’t until

the company’s latest meeting

with the FDA on Monday that

Biogen gained confidence to

submit the drug called adu-

canumab for approval, he said.

“Until yesterday, it was still

inconclusive,” Mr. Vounatsos

said.

An FDA spokesman declined

to comment, citing confidenti-

Please turn to page A

 Heard on the Street: Biogen’s

revelation isn’t simple........ B

ident Volodymyr Zelensky,

who was elected in April, to

announce he was opening two

investigations: into Burisma

Group, a Ukrainian gas com-

pany where Mr. Biden’s son

Hunter was a board member,

and into alleged Ukrainian

meddling in the 2016 presi-

Please turn to page A

Trump Rallies Take 2020 Center Stage

President banks on base-pleasing events to counter impeachment and power his campaign

to Ukraine be put on hold.

Mr. Taylor said he was later

told that if Ukraine didn’t de-

clare it was opening the two in-

vestigations, Mr. Trump would

neither release the aid nor

agree to a White House meeting

with the Ukrainian president,

according to his prepared testi-

mony to the closed hearing.

He said he subsequently

learned, from the U.S. ambas-

sador to the European Union,

Gordon Sondland, that Mr.

Trump wanted Ukrainian Pres-

about dual channels through

which the Trump administra-

tion was conducting foreign

policy toward Kyiv—one

through the State Department

and the other involving Rudy

Giuliani, the president’s per-

sonal lawyer—and became

even more alarmed when the

president in July directed aid

WASHINGTON—A top U.S.

diplomat in Kyiv said President

Trump made nearly $400 mil-

lion in aid contingent on the

Ukrainian president investigat-

ing Democratic presidential

candidate Joe Biden and alleged

Ukrainian interference in the

2016 U.S. election, in prepared

testimony that shed new light

on the central question facing

the impeachment inquiry.

Bill Taylor, the acting U.S.

ambassador to Ukraine, said

Tuesday he grew concerned

By Rebecca Ballhaus ,

Natalie Andrews

and Siobhan Hughes

Diplomat Says President Tied

Ukraine Aid to Biden Probe

 White House, allies look to

coordinate strategies............ A

 Trump’s ‘lynching’ tweet is

criticized....................................... A

SoftBank Group Corp. said it

agreed to take a majority stake

in WeWork after securing a

deal that could hand co-founder

Adam Neumann a nearly $1.

billion windfall and sever most

of his ties with the troubled of-

fice-space startup.

WeWork, in danger of running

out of cash in the coming weeks,

chose a rescue offer from Soft-

Bank over a competing proposal

from JPMorgan Chase & Co., ac-

cording to people familiar with

the matter. It had asked both

parties to submit proposals by a

deadline Monday.

The deal, which the compa-

nies announced late Tuesday,

values WeWork at about $8 bil-

lion, a far cry from what it was

aiming for in an initial public

offering earlier this year and

less than the $47 billion at

which a January investment

from SoftBank pegged its

worth. It will give SoftBank a

roughly 80% ownership stake

in WeWork.

Mr. Neumann, who was

forced out as chief executive

after pushback from prospec-

tive investors scuttled the IPO,

has the right to sell $970 mil-

Please turn to page A

BYMAUREENFARRELL

ANDELIOTBROWN

LONDON—U.K. lawmakers

endorsed a Brexit deal for the

first time on Tuesday, raising

the prospect that the country’s

protracted divorce from the

European Union is finally en-

tering its endgame.

It was an important step

that gave critical momentum

to the deal negotiated by

Prime Minister Boris Johnson,

but not a decisive one.

In a vote minutes later, law-

makers rejected Mr. Johnson’s

plan to rush his deal through

Parliament, complaining it

wouldn’t leave them with

enough time to examine the

deal’s small print. As a conse-

quence, the prime minister will

likely fail in his oft-repeated

ambition to pull the country

out of the EU by Oct. 31. He

said Tuesday he would try to

trigger an election if Parlia-

ment moves too slowly.

“This is a hell of a big docu-

ment. We cannot pretend that

2½ days is long enough to

scrutinize it,” said Rory Stew-

Please turn to page A

BYMAXCOLCHESTER

ANDJASONDOUGLAS

Brexit

Backed,

Schedule

Rejected

Nike Chief

To Step Down

Mark Parker will step aside as

Nike CEO in January, to be

succeeded by director John

Donahoe, a former eBay CEO. B

 Startup faces soaring lease

costs from growth binge.... B

 Heard on the Street: Life

goes on after WeWork...... B

LUCA BRUNO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONTENTS

Business News B3,5,

Crossword.............. A

Heard on Street. B

Life & Arts....... A11-

Markets.................... B

Opinion.............. A15-

Property Report... B

Sports....................... A

Streetwise................. B

Technology............... B

U.S. News............. A2-

Weather................... A

World News. A6-8,

s2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

What’s

News

 A top U.S. diplomat in Kyiv

said in prepared testimony

that Trump made nearly

$400 million in aid contin-

gent on Ukraine’s president

investigating Biden and al-

leged Ukrainian interference

in the 2016 U.S. election. A

 U.K. lawmakers endorsed

Johnson’s Brexit agreement,

an important step that gave

it critical momentum, but not

a decisive one, as they sub-

sequently rejected the prime

minister’s plan to rush the

deal through Parliament. A

 Russia agreed to help

Turkey drive out Kurdish

militias from a “safe zone”

in northeastern Syria,

highlighting the rebalance

of power in war-torn Syria

as U.S. troops leave. A

 Iraq’s government fired

scores of senior military com-

manders for their role in a

deadly crackdown on protest-

ers, aiming to avert a poten-

tial explosion of unrest. A

 Premiums for the most

popular health plans sold

under the ACA will drop for

the second straight year,

the administration said. A

 Brazilian senators

overwhelmingly approved

a sweeping revamp of the

country’s insolvent social-

security system. A

 Eleven parents who pros-

ecutors say were involved

in the college-admissions

cheating scheme are now

facing additional charges. A

 U.S. traffic fatalities

fell for a second consecu-

tive year in 2018, posting a

2.4% decline, but deaths of

pedestrians rose 3.4%. A

S

oftBank said it agreed to

take a majority stake

in WeWork after securing

a deal that could hand co-

founder Adam Neumann a

nearly $1.7 billion windfall

and sever most of his ties

with the troubled startup. A

 Biogen plans to seek

regulatory approval for an

Alzheimer’s drug that had

been considered a lost cause

after the company termi-

nated late-stage studies. A

 Boeing replaced the head

of its jetliner business as it

struggles to shore up confi-

dence in the firm’s handling

of the 737 MAX crisis. B

 Nike said Parker will

step aside as CEO and be re-

placed by technology indus-

try veteran Donahoe, who

is a member of its board. B

 Under Armour’s Plank

is relinquishing the CEO

post. He will be succeeded

by operating chief Frisk. B

 P&G said sales rose

across all of its business

lines as consumers contin-

ued to pay higher prices

for household goods. B

 An alleged global insider-

trading scheme has ensnared

bankers, securities traders

and others in a wide-rang-

ing federal investigation. B

 Snap reported another

quarterly increase in users

and revenue, and the com-

pany’s loss narrowed. B

 U.S. stocks ended lower,

with the Dow, S&P 500 and

Nasdaq losing 0.1%, 0.4%,

and 0.7%, respectively. B

 McDonald’s needed

promotions and price in-

creases to help boost sales

in the third quarter. B

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