Why leaders must talk

September 25, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Face-to-face meetings between heads of state decrease the likelihood of misjudgment over ongoing conflicts. That's always important.

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At least 717 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a stampede Thursday on the outskirts of Mecca, the deadliest tragedy to strike the annual hajj pilgrimage in more than two decades. It was the second major disaster during this year's hajj season, raising questions about the adequacy of measures put in place by Saudi authorities to ensure the safety of the roughly 2 million Muslims taking part. A crane collapse in Mecca nearly two weeks earlier left more than 100 people dead. Thursday's crush happened in Mina, a large valley three miles from the holy city of Mecca that has been the site of hajj stampedes in years past.

Standing before a rapt Congress, Pope Francis issued a ringing call to action on behalf of immigrants Thursday, urging lawmakers to embrace "the stranger in our midst" as he became the first pontiff in history to address a joint meeting at the US Capitol. Referencing the migration crisis in Europe as well as the United States' own struggle with immigration from Latin America, Francis summoned lawmakers "to respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal."

Former Yugoslav foes Serbia and Croatia turned back the clock on 15 years of reconciliation on Thursday, trading embargoes and insults as Europe’s migrant crisis damaged relations in the fragile Western Balkans. With relations hitting their lowest ebb since Serbia came in from the cold with the ouster of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, the Balkan neighbors exchanged tit-for-tat sanctions that saw Croatian goods and cargo vehicles banned from entering Serbia and Serbian-registered vehicles barred from entering Croatia from Serbia. Croatia, which fought a 1991-95 war against Belgrade-backed Serb rebels to forge its independence from communist Yugoslavia, is demanding Serbia stop directing tens of thousands of migrants exclusively over their joint border, saying it cannot keep pace with the influx.

Democrats and several Republicans banded together on Thursday to block legislation to keep the government open over a contentious, GOP-led effort to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer funding. The vote was 47-52, falling short of a majority and the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster led by Democrats. Eight Republicans, several of whom support abortion rights, voted with 42 Democrats and two independents to kill the measure. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky hasn't explicitly said what he'll do next to avoid a government shutdown at midnight on Wednesday. But he's widely expected to begin debate on a bipartisan stopgap spending bill free of the Planned Parenthood dispute that would pass with Democratic support next week and be signed into law by President Obama.

Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama will be meeting Monday in New York, their first face-to-face encounter in nearly a year amid strongly troubled relations between the two nations. Putin is speaking Monday at the United Nations General Assembly. Russian president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting with Obama, expected to last about an hour, will take place afterward and will focus on the Syria crisis. The conflict in Ukraine, the crux of Moscow-Washington tensions, could also be discussed, but only if time allows, Peskov said.

Caterpillar is planning another round of job cuts that could exceed 10,000 people through 2018, as the construction and mining equipment maker adjusts to downturns in key markets. That could amount to more than 8 percent of the 126,800 employees it had globally as of June. The Peoria, Illinois, company said Thursday that it will cut as many as 5,000 people mostly by the end of this year from its salaried and management workforce. It then could cut thousands more, raising the total above 10,000, as it figures out which factories and manufacturing sites to close through 2018.

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