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Why Trump is focusing on business deals on his Middle East trip

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Why Trump is focusing on business deals on his Middle East trip

President Trump waves after taking questions from reporters outside the White House on May 8.

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President Trump leaves Monday for the first major foreign trip of his second term, focusing on business deals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as his administration struggles to broker an end to the war in Gaza.

Trump pledged to bring peace to the region as he ran for a second term, but that is proving to be elusive. On this trip, he will showcase a promise by Saudi Arabia to invest $600 billion in the United States over the next four years and pledges from the UAE to spend $1.4 trillion over 10 years.

“The Saudis, the Emiratis and Qataris are going to fall all over themselves over who can outdo themselves to welcome the president,” said Steven Cook, a senior fellow for the Middle East at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And then they will outdo themselves over the number of deals that they can announce as the president is there.”

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In many ways, the trip is a replay of the inaugural foreign trip of Trump’s first term. The Saudis welcomed Trump with a lavish ceremony and announcements of billions of dollars in investments.

In this May 21, 2017, photo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Saudi King Salman and President Trump place their hands on an illuminated globe as they stand around it.

In 2017, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (from left), Saudi King Salman and President Trump attend a ceremonial launch of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology.

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Cook said the Gulf leaders understand what Trump wants — and have an interest in giving it to him — because there are other things they don’t want Trump to ask about.

“It’s good for them because when he comes to them and says, ‘We want your help doing something on Gaza,’ and they’re not inclined to do it, they will be insulated from the criticism that would likely come if they just didn’t do anything,” Cook said.

Back in 2017, Trump sought to shore up relationships in the region after implementing a travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries — and did some business with autocratic leaders seeking global credibility.

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In this 2017 photo, taken at a welcome ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, President Trump is wearing a dark suit and holding a sword while flanked by men wearing traditional white robes who are also holding swords.

President Trump joins dancers with swords at a welcome ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 20, 2017.

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The White House said this trip will highlight strengthening ties in the region.

“President Trump will return to reemphasize his continued vision for a proud, prosperous and successful Middle East, where the United States and Middle Eastern nations are in cooperative relationships and where extremism is defeated in place of commerce and cultural exchanges,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday.

But the unrest and uncertainty in the region have complicated the messaging, said Karen Young, a political economist focusing on the Gulf at the Middle East Institute.

“A lot of the rhetoric is the same, but the world has changed,” she said.

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Trump’s biggest policy goals are currently beyond reach

Trump has some big goals in the region for his second term: end fighting in Gaza, stop Iran’s advances toward becoming a nuclear power and persuade Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel by joining what’s known as the Abraham Accords.

But Saudi Arabia — which has long called for an independent Palestinian state — is unlikely to be interested in those accords right now because of the war in Gaza, said Dennis Ross, who worked on Middle East issues for both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations.

“Mohammed bin Salman [Saudi Arabia’s crown prince] is very likely to say that so sours the atmosphere, that that’s not something that he can be engaging in at this time,” said Ross, who’s now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

In this 2017 photo, President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are shaking hands while standing in front of U.S. and Saudi flags. Trump is on the right, wearing a suit and tie, and Salman is on the left, wearing a traditional Saudi robe.

President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meet in Riyadh on May 20, 2017.

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Any discussions about the accords are likely to happen behind closed doors, Ross said.

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It also makes the business deals more important for Trump.

“Right now, the president doesn’t have a lot of successes to point to,” Ross said.” So I think he’s going to want to play up the trip in terms of showing, ‘Look what I’m producing for the United States.’”

What happened on Trump’s first trip to Riyadh

During Trump’s first trip to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in 2017, nearly $110 billion in arms deals were announced, and the administration said that other investments could boost that total to as much as $350 billion.

Since then, the State Department said, the U.S. government has “implemented” $30 billion in foreign military “cases” with Saudi Arabia. Put another way: The Riyadh announcement was the easy part.

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“There are a lot of steps in any arms sales process,” said John Parachini, a senior defense researcher at the Rand Corp. The process involves complex negotiations, multiple federal agencies, Congress, arms manufacturers and the customer countries.

But that complexity wasn’t part of how Trump sold it.

“That’s the style of this particular president. He’s going to send a strong signal that he’s supporting American business, but these things are really complicated and can take years,” Parachini said.

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

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Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show

At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.

A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.

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City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”

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Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.

Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.

“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.

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Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.

Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.

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“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.

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The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.

Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.

“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.

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Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”

He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.

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Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.

On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.

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DOJ warns of criminal charges for state election officials if noncitizens vote

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DOJ warns of criminal charges for state election officials if noncitizens vote

The Justice Department sent letters warning election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting, a spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.

The letters, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads up the department’s Civil Rights Division, give states five days to explain how they will comply with federal voter eligibility laws and how they will maintain “clean voter lists.”

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“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.

Noncitizen voting in federal elections is extremely rare, but Trump and his administration have falsely portrayed it as a widespread issue.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson are among those who said they received the letters from the Justice Department.

The letters say state election officers “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting. They further specify that any election officer who knowingly retains noncitizens on a statewide voting registration list or who facilitates noncitizens’ receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.

“An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of federal law, the letters said.

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Henderson wrote on social media that the threats constitute “truly bizarre behavior.”

“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts.”

The letters are the latest move in the Justice Department’s campaign to assert more federal control over state elections.

While some states have complied with the administration’s demands that they hand over voter roll data, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting. So far, 11 different federal courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s efforts to seize voter rolls.

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Reigning champion Argentina escapes with remarkable World Cup victory over Egypt

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Reigning champion Argentina escapes with remarkable World Cup victory over Egypt

Lionel Messi #10 of Argentina celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during their World Cup match against Egypt in Atlanta on Tuesday.

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They looked beaten. And out. Argentina, the defending World Cup champion and No. 1-ranked team, was down 2-0 late against Egypt.

Then, in a span of 13 remarkable minutes, Argentina scored not once, not twice, but three times, capping a comeback for the ages and leaving Egypt stunned and shellshocked.

For much of the game in Atlanta, Egypt was in control, hobbling Argentina early. The Egyptian attack began almost immediately with a stunning header goal delivered by Yasser Ibrahim in the 15th minute. After that, Egypt’s defense closed ranks, making it practically impossible for Argentina to equalize.

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It was downhill from there for the Argentines: team captain Lionel Messi failed to convert a penalty kick, and in the 67th minute, Egypt got a second goal from Mostafa Ziko (after an earlier Egyptian goal had been disallowed after a video review). It looked like Argentina was finished. On the brink of elimination.

But no one told the Argentine players that.

In the 79th minute, Lionel Messi began doing his thing. He fired a cross near the Egyptian goal, and Cristian Romero headed it in. Messi was not done. Four minutes later, he powered a shot past the Egyptian keeper. It was his eighth goal of this tournament, the most of any player. The score was 2-2.

Then, in stoppage time, yet another Argentina header and another goal, this time from Enzo Fernandez.

“This is the World Cup for you,” said Messi after the game. “It wasn’t easy to come back from two goals down. But as I always say, this group never gives up. We always try to fight until the end.”

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French referee François Letexier speaks with Egypt forward Mohamed Salah during the World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt in Atlanta.

French referee François Letexier speaks with Egypt forward Mohamed Salah during the World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt in Atlanta.

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Afterward, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan complained about the French referee and the officiating. “I am not convinced. I am not convinced with this outcome. I’m not convinced with the way things unfolded during this match,” said Hassan in a post-match news conference. “We have been treated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice.”

“We would have deserved to earn this win, but we are leaving with honor, with pride, regardless of this defeat,” said Hossan.

African soccer teams have been the stars of this World Cup. Morocco has yet to lose a game. Cape Verde qualified for the first time in its history and stymied Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. Argentina barely beat them in a nail-biter of a match.

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