North Korea-US summit on track, says Moon, after candid talks with 'friend' Kim Jong-un
South Korean president says North still committed to denuclearisation after surprise talks requested by Kim
Amid hugs and smiles, Moon met Kim on the North Korean side of Panmunjom, the “truce village” on the border, which was the site of their first meeting just a month earlier. The atmosphere was “just like an ordinary meeting between friends” and the two held “candid talks”, Moon said. A video released by the South Korean presidential office had the audio replaced with dramatic music, showing the two men embracing, both with wide smiles.
The spontaneous offer by Kim to meet, and Moon’s quick acceptance, shows how close the two leaders have become in a short period of time. It capped a whirlwind 24 hours of diplomacy as Moon scrambled to salvage a 12 June summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore after Trump abruptly cancelled the meeting on Thursday.
The truth about the brutal four-hour battle between Russian mercenaries and US commandos in Syria
The artillery barrage was so intense that the US commandos dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces – including Russian mercenaries – that threatened to inflame already simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow.
In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. The others retreated under merciless air strikes from the US, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria – about 40 by the end of the firefight – were harmed.
Will Populists Stall Europe?Italy's New Goverment Is Bad News for the Euro
Two populist parties are set to take over the government reins in Italy and about the only thing they seem to agree on is their desire to spend huge amounts of money. That's bad news for Italian finances and terrible news for the eurozone. By DER SPIEGEL Staff
Signor Fabio doesn't think it will take long. The new Italian government, he believes, is destined for a brief tenure: "In September, we will be voting again," says the slender man in the center of Rome. Signor Fabio is the giornalaio -- or newsstand proprietor -- with the most attractive kiosk location in the capital, situated as it is fewer than 100 meters from the prime minister's office. He knows what's going on in the world and that people are once again looking to his homeland with concern.
"Rome Opens Its Gates to the Modern Barbarians," was the headline chosen by the Financial Times 10 days ago in an editorial about the new government, which pairs the Five Star Movement (M5S) under the leadership of Luigi Di Maio with the right-wing nationalist party Lega, led by Matteo Salvini. But Italian papers weren't any less critical. The daily Il Manifesto went with the headline "Populandia," in reference to the populist natures of the two parties. "The Third Republic Is Formed as the Whole World Laughs," wrote Il Foglio. And Libero wrote: "Mattarella Chooses the Rotten Apple: Mini-Premier Conte."
Colombians to vote in first election since peace deal with rebels
Colombians vote on Sunday in a deeply divisive presidential ballot that has stirred fears the winner could upset a fragile peace accord with Marxist FARC rebels or derail the nation’s business-friendly economic model.
In the first election since the peace deal was signed in 2016 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), voters will decide on a replacement for President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the five-decade-old conflict.
Leading candidate, right-wing Ivan Duque, has pledged to alter the terms of the peace deal and to jail former rebels for war crimes. Leftist Gustavo Petro, polling second, has said he would overhaul Colombia’s orthodox economic policy and redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor.
Trailing them in the often-unreliable polls are mathematician and centrist Sergio Fajardo and former vice president German Vargas, who has Santos’ support.
Andargachew Tsige pardoned by Ethiopia
Ethiopia has pardoned an opposition leader with British citizenship who had been sentenced to death.
Andargachew Tsige was found guilty of "terrorism" and sentenced in absentia in 2009 over his role in the opposition group Ginbot 7. He was the organisation's secretary-general.
The father of three was arrested during a stopover at a Yemen airport in June 2014 and taken to Ethiopia.
Berhanu Tsegaye, Ethiopia's attorney general, said on Saturday that Andargachew was pardoned "under special circumstances" along with 575 other inmates.
DONALD TRUMP HAS LIBERATED KOREANS FROM THE ILLUSION THAT AMERICA IS HELPING THEM
IT’S STRANGE TO say, but there is an upside to the goat rodeo way in which President Donald Trump has cancelled, for the moment, his North Korea summit. No president has done a better job of making clear that the United States is an impediment to peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Is this a disaster? It could be, because anything Trump touches can turn to nuclear ash. But the summit cancellation — or postponement or revival or who knows what to call it, given Trump’s garbled moods — has the prospect of being useful if South Korea and North Korea seize the moment to take matters into their own hands, improving their ties despite the toxic clown show in the Oval Office.
“Ultimately, this cannot just go back to how it was before the Winter Olympics,” tweeted Abraham Denmark, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. “North Korea is in a stronger position, Kim has far more legitimacy, China is more engaged, South Korea has invested a lot into diplomacy, and the U.S. role is more circumscribed.”
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