C M Y K Nxxx,2018-03-30,A,001,Bs-4C,E2 Late Edition Today, morning rain and fog, an af- ternoon shower, mild, high 62. To- night, mostly clear skies, colder, low 40. Tomorrow, sunshine, mild, high 58. Weather map is on Page A17. VOL. CLXVII ... No. 57,917 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2018 $3.00 Tabloid Mogul U.S. SET TO BLUNT Visited Trump POLLUTION RULES To Woo Saudis FOR AUTOMAKERS A Longtime Protector Flaunts a Friendship OBAMA-ERA STANDARDS This article is by Jim Rutenberg, Kate Kelly, Jessica Silver-Green- Changes Would Hearten berg and Mike McIntire. Carmakers, but Lead In July, David J. Pecker, the chairman of the company that to California Fight owns The National Enquirer, vis- ited his old friend President Trump at the White House. By CORAL DAVENPORT The tabloid publisher took and HIROKO TABUCHI along a special guest, Kacy Grine, The Trump administration is a French businessman who ad- expected to kick off an effort in vises one of Saudi Arabia’s richest coming days to weaken green- men and sometimes acts as an in- house gas emissions and fuel termediary between Saudi Crown economy standards for automo- Prince Mohammed bin Salman biles, handing a victory to car and Western businesses. manufacturers and giving them The two men and other Pecker ammunition potentially to roll associates chatted with the presi- back industry standards world- dent in the Oval Office and briefly wide. met with Mr. Trump’s son-in-law The move, which undercuts one and Middle East envoy, Jared of President Barack Obama’s sig- Kushner. Before moving on to din- nature efforts to fight climate ner with the group, the president change, would also propel the had a photographer snap pictures Trump administration toward a CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS/REUTERS of the guests standing with him After scores died in a riot and fire in a jail at a police station in Valencia, Venezuela, inmates’ relatives awaited word on loved ones. courtroom clash with California, behind his desk. which has vowed to stick with the Mr. Pecker has long used his stricter rules even if Washington media empire to protect Mr. rolls back federal standards. That Trump’s image. During the 2016 fight could end up creating one set Crisis Deepens 68 Die in Jail Fire. Then Police Attack Bereaved. presidential campaign, Mr. Peck- of rules for cars sold in California er’s company, American Media and the 12 states that follow its Inc., suppressed the story of a for- Grocery stores are short of food lead, and weaker rules for the rest mer Playboy model who claimed As the Kremlin and hospitals are bereft of sup- of the states, in effect splitting the By ANA VANESSA HERRERO In Venezuela, Tear Gas to have had an affair with Mr. and NICHOLAS CASEY plies as the country’s economic Bucks the West Is Used on Victims’ meltdown hastens. President Trump. VALENCIA, Venezuela — It be- Nicolás Maduro marches toward The night of the dinner, Mr. gan as a jailhouse party. It ended autocracy, isolating his country Pecker got something from Mr. in carnage. Loved Ones Trump: an unofficial seal of ap- By ANDREW HIGGINS from humanitarian aid and keep- On Thursday, grieving families ing opponents in jail ahead of a proval from the White House. MOSCOW — Russia on Thurs- collected their dead after one of presidential election in May. Hun- It was an opportune moment day escalated a confrontation the worst prison fires in the coun- tives who had come were sprayed dreds of thousands of people have for Mr. Pecker to showcase his with Europe and the United States try’s history claimed the lives of with tear gas by security forces fled the country, seeking lives in White House connections. He was over the poisoning of a former 68 people. The relatives searched who tried to disperse them. lands where there is more hope. considering expanding his media Russian spy in Britain, saying it for answers, but also offered a “I’ve been living here 55 years, Yet the fire underlined the fate and events businesses into Saudi would expel 60 American diplo- chilling account of what they had and it’s the first time I’ve seen of a group for whom escape was Arabia and also was hunting for mats and an unspecified number learned so far: The fire began af- something like this,” said María, never possible: The tens of thou- moneyed partners in acquisitions. of envoys from other countries to ter gangs running a party in an whose home is near the prison, sands of Venezuelan prisoners ne- The intersection of the tabloid retaliate for a mass expulsion of overcrowded jail fought with the and who refused to give her last glected in overcrowded cells by publisher with the Saudis, en- Russian diplomats working in the hanced by the White House visit, TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES guards. A hostage was taken; a name for fear of reprisals by the the very government charged Scott Pruitt of the E.P.A. West and beyond that was or- fire broke out. police for describing the tear-gas- with their custody. is a previously untold chapter in the long, symbiotic relationship dered this week. Dozens perished in the smoke sing. “Put in the wider context, this between the president and Mr. Furious at what it described as and flames, screaming for help. The scenes were shocking, even country has gone broke,” said nation into two markets. Pecker, which was forged in the an anti-Russian campaign orches- Yet the pain didn’t end there. in Venezuela, where tragedy has Jeremy McDermott, the co- Scott Pruitt, the head of the En- 1990s. At the time, Mr. Trump was trated by Washington and Lon- Witnesses said that grieving rela- become the norm. Continued on Page A10 vironmental Protection Agency, is don, the Kremlin exceeded an celebrating a real estate come- expected to frame the initiative as equivalent response to the United back after his casino bankruptcies eliminating a regulatory burden States and ordered the closing of and was both the subject and the on automakers that will result in the American Consulate in St. Pe- source of much gossip in New more affordable trucks, vans and tersburg, Russia’s second-largest York. sport utility vehicles for buyers, city. The consulate is bigger and Mr. Pecker, who had known Mr. according to people familiar with far more important to relations Grine only for a few months, invit- the plan. than the Russian Consulate in Se- ed him to the dinner to thank him An E.P.A. spokeswoman con- attle, which the Trump adminis- for advice he had provided about firmed that Mr. Pruitt had sent a tration ordered closed on Monday investing in the Middle East, ac- draft of the 16-page plan to the as part of its expulsion decree. cording to someone who knew of White House for approval. The crisis over the March 4 poi- the invitation. The particulars of the plan are soning of a former Russian double Word soon traveled back to still being worked out. Those spe- agent and his daughter has driven Saudi Arabia about the dinner: It cifics, which are expected this tensions between the Kremlin and signaled Mr. Pecker’s powerful year, could substantially roll back the West to their highest pitch in status in Washington. the Obama-era standards, accord- decades and forced European Two months later, he was in ing to two people familiar with the countries like Germany that are Saudi Arabia, meeting with Mr. deliberations. usually wary of clashing with Grine and the crown prince about “This is certainly a big deal,” Moscow to choose sides. Britain business opportunities there, ac- said Robert Stavins, director of contends that the poison used was cording to A.M.I. the Harvard environmental eco- a signature Russian nerve agent And by January, Mr. Pecker was nomics program. “The result will created by Soviet-era scientists. confident enough about his grow- be more gas-guzzling vehicles on Voicing alarm that the East- ing rapport with Saudi investors the road, greater total gasoline West confrontation was spinning Continued on Page A14 Continued on Page A15 out of control, the secretary gen- eral of the United Nations, An- tónio Guterres, said that the crisis recalled the Cold War, only with- out the controls and channels of In President’s Tirade on Amazon, communication established be- fore the 1991 collapse of the Soviet The Rage Might Be for the C.E.O. Union “to make sure things would not get out of control when ten- TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES sions rise.” The intensifying crisis has also Make That 1-0 This article is by Michael D. States Postal Service as its “Deliv- Shear, Nick Wingfield and Cecilia ery Boy.” Continued on Page A6 The Mets won their opener at Citi Field on Thursday, and the Yankees won in Toronto. Page B8. Kang. The president has lashed out WASHINGTON — President publicly against the giant com- Trump escalated his attack on pany and its chief executive, Jeff Amazon on Thursday, saying in an Bezos, on Twitter more than a doz- Network Rediscovers Trump Country With Reboot of ‘Roseanne’ early-morning Twitter post that en times since 2015. And privately, the online retail behemoth does people close to him said, Mr. said, ‘There’s a lot about this coun- ing Company. By the meeting’s executives had hoped: The pre- not pay enough taxes — and Trump repeatedly brings up his By JOHN KOBLIN try we need to learn a lot more end, they had in place the begin- miere of “Roseanne” had the high- strongly suggesting that he may disdain for the company, often set and MICHAEL M.