The Wall Street Journal - 11.09.2019

*** WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 ~ VOL. CCLXXIV NO. 61 WSJ.com HHHH $4.**

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Russia was behind the mur-

der last month of a former

Chechen rebel in Germany,

U.S. officials said on Tuesday,

rekindling concerns that Mos-

cow is ramping up an assassi-

nation campaign against the

country’s perceived enemies

abroad.

The victim, a 40-year-old

Georgian who once com-

manded forces against Russia

during a Chechen uprising,

was gunned down in a Berlin

park on Aug. 23 on his way to

a local mosque. Minutes later,

German police arrested a Rus-

sian man attempting to leave

the scene on an electric

scooter after he discarded a

pistol and silencer.

The murder of Zelimkhan

Khangoshvili is the latest in a

flurry of assassinations of

Kremlin antagonists or attacks

on them.

Last year, Western govern-

ments expelled more than 100

Russian diplomats in response

to the poisoning in the U.K. of

a former Russian spy and his

daughter, which London has

blamed on the Russian mili-

tary foreign-intelligence ser-

vice GRU. The two survived

exposure to the Russian nerve

agent novichok.

The assertion by U.S. offi-

Please turn to page A

By Bojan Pancevski

in Berlin and

Alan Cullison and

Michael R. Gordon

in Washington

Inc. eat their lunch.

“It’s not too late for us,” Gerald Hines,

the 94-year-old family patriarch and CEO’s

father, told the group.

This June, the big landlord punched back.

It launched its own co-working business,

called Hines Squared, as a direct competitor

to WeWork.

Other major office-building owners are

doing the same, from Boston Properties to

British Land PLC to Tishman Speyer, whose

co-working brand, Studio, has six locations

open and six more under construction.

The moves raise two big uncertainties in

the real-estate world, critical to investors

and tenants alike: Whether large office-

building owners can forestall an Uber-like

undermining of their business—and whether

the flexible-space, co-working startups can

Please turn to page A

When Crop Prices Sink, Produce Soars

iii

Farmers charge customers to launch corn, apples from cannons

dreds of feet, where they land

with a satisfying splat.

“Why not shoot it?” says

Fred Howell, owner of Howell’s

Pumpkin Patch in Cumming,

Iowa. “We’re fat Americans and

we play with our food.”

It’s a way to keep jaded

teens and bored adults coming

back to spend time and money

on the farms while the youn-

gest members of the family are

happy petting sheep.

Food cannons alone can’t

protect farms from depressed

prices. But they are part of the

growing field of agritainment—

which also includes corn mazes,

hayrides and goat yoga—that

can serve as a hedge for farm-

ers during tough times. Farm-

linked recreation was a nearly

$1 billion business in 2017, ac-

cording to Claudia Schmidt, an

assistant professor of agricul-

tural economics at Penn State

University.

Farms charge a premium to

fire air guns loaded with pro-

duce—certainly more than they

charge retailers for the regular

crop. Corn costs under $4 a

bushel today on the open mar-

Please turn to page A

Farmers across the U.S. have

stumbled onto a fertile side

hustle at a time when prices for

their crops are low: cramming

produce into an air gun and

charging people to fire it into

the sky.

Growers of corn, apples and

even pumpkins place the agri-

cultural ammo at the base of a

long tube, sometimes with the

help of a ramrod. Then they use

an air compressor to build up

enough pressure to send the

fruits or vegetables flying hun-

BYADAMTHOMPSON

Source: Census Bureau

91.5% insured

In 2018

27.5 million

uninsured

80

85

90

95%

2013 ’

At a dinner two years ago, held in the

wine cellar of real-estate executive Jeffrey

Hines, managers of the office-building com-

pany he heads voiced growing suspicions

about WeWork.

WeWork started off as a great customer

of Hines Interests LP and other landlords,

leasing unused space and renting it to busi-

nesses too tiny to be ordinary tenants, Hines

executive Charlie Kuntz said in a presenta-

tion after dessert, according to several peo-

ple present.

But WeWork didn’t stop there. It began

cutting deals with large corporations too,

making it a threat to Hines’s core business.

WeWork’s move reminded some at the din-

ner of how Airbnb Inc. stole business from

hotels and how taxicab companies saw Uber

BYPETERGRANT

INSIDE

LIFE & ARTS

Documentary series

attempts to reconcile

the many facets of Bill

Gates A

CHRISTIAN MARQUARDT/GETTY IMAGES

WASHINGTON—President

Trump dismissed John Bolton,

his national security adviser,

after a contentious debate

about Afghan peace talks be-

came the latest of many dis-

putes over foreign policy that

exposed differences so severe

that the two men couldn’t

even agree on how the ouster

happened.

Mr. Bolton, the president’s

third national security adviser,

had exerted a hawkish influ-

ence in the White House, at

times advocating for military

action while Mr. Trump has

shied away from overseas in-

terventions. He also disagreed

with the president and other

advisers on policies toward

North Korea, Iran and Russia.

For months, Mr. Trump de-

fended Mr. Bolton’s more ag-

gressive views, saying he valued

diversity of opinion. But after

Mr. Bolton disagreed with the

president’s interest in striking a

peace deal in Afghanistan—in-

cluding a plan to meet last

weekend with Taliban and Af-

ghan leaders at Camp David

that was ultimately canceled—

Mr. Trump made it clear he had

Please turn to page A

BYMICHAELC.BENDER

ANDVIVIANSALAMA

Trump Ousts Bolton After Clashes

TOM BRENNER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

John Bolton, shown outside the West Wing of the White House on Tuesday, was dismissed as

national security adviser by President Trump after the two repeatedly disagreed on foreign policy.

President Trump has rewrit-

ten the U.S. foreign policy play-

book with his willingness to

meet anyone and go anywhere

to get a deal. With his hawkish

national security adviser John

Bolton gone, Mr. Trump has re-

moved one of the last voices of

dissent.

So far, Mr. Trump has be-

come the first president to set

foot in North Korea and to

meet its leader, and has sought

to forge close ties to Russia’s

president. Mr. Bolton’s exit

could remove a barrier to a

meeting at the United Nations

with Iran’s president later this

month, or to talks with mem-

bers of the insurgent Afghan

Taliban movement.

“From the outset, President

Trump has had two voices

whispering in his ears: the one

counseling diplomacy and...the

other recommending belliger-

ence,” said Rob Malley, who

was an adviser to former Presi-

dent Obama and now heads the

International Crisis Group in

Washington. “With Bolton gone,

the second voice undeniably

has lost its loudest proponent.

That could create new opportu-

nities for diplomacy on Iran,

Afghanistan, North Korea and

Venezuela.”

Please turn to page A

By Vivian Salama

in Washington and

Isabel Coles in Beirut

U.S. Aides

Pin Murder

In Berlin

On Russia

year the tech giant sought to

balance its penchant for pre-

mium products with an em-

phasis on value. Apple is look-

ing to offset slowing hardware

sales by selling newer services,

such as TV streaming, video-

games and news—and it is be-

ing aggressive on pricing to

gain a foothold in those cut-

throat industries.

Apple set monthly prices

for its TV+ videogame-stream-

ing service and Arcade video-

game-streaming service at

$4.99, largely undercutting ri-

vals. TV+ comes free for a year

with the purchase of a new

iPhone, iPad or Mac, a perk

that could get more people to

buy a new device or upgrade.

Apple can afford to discount

the services because of the

profit it earns on hardware

and its distribution edge over

competitors, with more than

1.4 billion devices in use

world-wide.

The company is making just

a handful of shows available

for the TV+ debut in Novem-

ber, so the service will be a

tough sell against the deeper

programming catalogs offered

by streaming rivals Netflix Inc.

and Walt Disney Co. But at

$4.99 a month, TV+ is much

cheaper than Netflix’s $12.

monthly standard option and

Disney’s $6.99 monthly fee for

a service expected to arrive in

November.

“Clearly, they want their

customers to use it and not

feel forced to choose between

it and Netflix or Hulu,” said

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst

with Creative Strategies. She

added that Apple could offer

lower prices on services with-

out affecting its historical

brand position in hardware as

Please turn to page A

Apple Undercuts Rivals With Streaming Price

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple

Inc. revealed a trio of up-

graded iPhones, including a

lower-priced model, and de-

tailed its plans to enter the in-

creasingly competitive video-

streaming market with an

offering that is cheaper than

rivals.

The announcements came

Tuesday at Apple’s marquee

product showcase, where this

BYTRIPPMICKLE

WeWork’s Old-Line Rivals

Prepare for a Fight

Legacy owners, seeking to avoid the fate of hotels and taxi fleets,

are trying to copy the tactics of their upstart competitor

HealthCoverage

Declines in U.S.

The number of Americans with

health insurance fell in 2018,

after years of expansion. A

 Flynn’s deal with prosecutors

at risk............................................. A

 Gerald F. Seib: Exit shows

GOP foreign-policy shift...... A

 Personal Technology: Making

sense of iPhone 11.................. B

Dispute with hawkish

top security adviser

over Afghanistan talks

was the final straw

Exit frees president to

pursue his instincts to

negotiate with the

nation’s adversaries

CONTENTS

Business News...... B

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

Heard on Street. B

Life & Arts...... A13-

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

Opinion.............. A17-

Property Report B6-

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

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

Technology.......... B4-

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

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

World News..... A7-

s2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

What’s

News

 Trump dismissed his na-

tional security adviser after

disputes over foreign-policy

flashpoints that even spilled

into differing accounts of

how the ouster happened. A

 Bolton’s departure makes

it more likely that Trump

will redouble his brand of

personal diplomacy. A

 Russia was behind the

murder last month of a for-

mer Chechen rebel in Ger-

many, U.S. officials said. A

 The GOP kept control of

a North Carolina congres-

sional district in a special

election Tuesday, with a win

for Trump ally Bishop. A

 The number of Ameri-

cans without health insur-

ance rose to 27.5 million in

2018, according to data

showing the first year-to-

year increase in a decade. A

 The administration un-

veiled new counterterror-

ism powers and imposed

sanctions on individuals and

entities allegedly involved

with terrorist groups. A

 Netanyahu said he

would annex a huge swath

of the West Bank along the

border with Jordan if he

stays in power after next

week’s election in Israel. A

 Prosecutors charged a

FEMA official and the ex-pres-

ident of a Puerto Rico utility

contractor with corruption

in connection with repairs to

the island’s electric grid. A

 Died: Robert Frank, 94,

master photographer. A

A

pple unveiled a trio of

iPhones with additional

cameras and stronger battery

life, betting that improve-

ments to familiar features

will help enliven flagging

sales of the devices. A

 The administration will re-

quire Fannie Mae and Freddie

Mac to pay a fee for Treasury

Department support before

allowing them to retain their

earnings, Mnuchin said. A

 Aramco prepared for

a two-part listing on Saudi

Arabia’s stock market in what

would be the kingdom’s larg-

est initial public offering. B

 AT&T promised its Time

Warner deal would help the

telecom company take on

tech giants. With Elliott’s

disclosed stake, it is under

pressure to deliver. B

 Amazon has agreed to

take space in a three-story

warehouse, a new type of cen-

ter that could reduce delivery

times in congested cities. B

 Uber laid off 435 tech-

nical employees, the latest

downsizing at the company

as it faces market pres-

sures to turn a profit. B

 The Dow extended its

winning streak to five

days, closing up 0.3%. The

S&P 500 gained less than

0.1%. The Nasdaq fell. B

 GE is giving up majority

control of Baker Hughes,

selling shares that will raise

about $3 billion cash. B

 Charles Schwab is cutting

about 600 jobs as the bro-

kerage deals with the impact

of lower interest rates. B

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