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November 27, 2011 | | DIPLOMACY Pakistan is retaliating against a weekend NATO strike that is said to have killed 24 of its soldiers by kicking the U.S. out of a strategic air base. The Shamsi site is a key launchpad for American drone strikes, and Pakistan has given troops just 15 days to get out. Islamabad has also cut off vital supply routes to U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Daily Beast’s Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, on how the latest crisis fits into a decades-long pattern of deceit and mistrust between America and Pakistan—and why Obama must continue to engage anyway. BOOST Months ago he was counted out, but GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has received a big endorsement. The Manchester Union Leader—an influential newspaper in the important state of New Hampshire, where the primary on Jan. 10 is the nation's first—has thrown its hefty support to the former speaker of the House. It's an endorsement that his Republican rival Mitt Romney desperately wanted. WARNING Egypt's military ruler said Sunday that protesters must put an end to the current crisis or face "extremely grave" consequences, in comments carried by the nation's official news agency. "We will not allow troublemakers to meddle in elections," said Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the military council, warning protesters to stop the sometimes violent demonstrations that have rocked Cairo and other cities. The activists are demanding that the military rulers cede power immediately. But in the upcoming issue of Newsweek, Mike Giglio and Christopher Dickey report that even according to former Egyptian military officers, getting rid of ex-president Hosni Mubarak was the easy part; taking on the military leadership will be far more difficult. shopper Perhaps all those stories of shoppers lined up outside the stores weren’t an exaggeration. Early reports on Saturday indicated retailers may have seen their strongest Black Friday sales ever. ShopperTrak, which counts foot traffic at malls, estimated that sales rose 6.6 percent this year, to $11.4 billion. Last year’s Black Friday sales climbed just 0.3 percent, to $10.7 billion. But ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin warned against getting too excited: “It’s just one day. It remains to be seen whether consumers will sustain this behavior through the holiday shopping season.” NOT THE TABLOIDS Perhaps they got the idea from the British tabloids. Four people in the Philippines have been accused of hacking into the phone accounts of AT&T customers in the U.S. to aid terrorists responsible for attacks across Asia, according to local police. The three men and one woman are suspected of working for Jemaah Islamiah, a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, and the FBI said similar phone hacking has gone on since 2009. The four are suspected of using the hacked information to divert funds to terrorists. | | 
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