Kim Jong-un arrives in Singapore ahead of historic summit with Donald Trump
Foreign minister greets North Korean ruler with handshake
North Korea and America were on the cusp of making history on Sunday, as Kim Jong-un arrived in Singapore ahead of a landmark summit with Donald Trump that could end a tense nuclear standoff.
Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan announced the arrival by posting a picture on Twitter of him shaking hands with Mr Kim wearing glasses and a dark Maoist suit.
“Welcomed chairman Kim Jong Un, who has just arrived in Singapore,” he said.
Colonialism did not just create slavery: it changed geology
Researchers suggest effects of the colonial era can be detected in rocks or even air
It brought riches to Britain and many other European nations; played a major role in enslaving more than 10 million Africans; and created the first global markets in cotton, tobacco and sugar. But now colonialism has been accused of having an even greater influence. It is claimed that it changed the Earth’s very makeup.
This is the view of two UK scientists who believe the impact of colonialism was so profound it can be detected in Earth’s air and rocks, an idea revealed in The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene, by Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin, published last week.
The two researchers, who are based at University College London, describe the colonising of the Americas and other lands as “a planet-wide human-driven evolutionary experiment” which began in the 16th century and “will continue to play out indefinitely”.
Thousands rally in Romania against judiciary in government-backed protests
The ruling Social Democrat party in Romania organized a large demonstration to counter anti-government protests held after Social Democrats tried to decriminalize corruption offenses. Protesters were bussed in.
The ruling Social Democrats (PSD) in Romania and thousands of their supporters rallied outside government headquarters in Bucharest on Saturday to protest alleged abuses of power by anti-corruption prosecutors.
The rally was seen as a response by the ruling coalition to a series of large anti-government street protests held against Social Democrat attempts to decriminalize several corruption offenses via emergency decree last year. After the popular outcry, the Social Democrats were forced to withdraw the decree.
A refugee's journey from Manus to US: 'I can't believe I'm here'
After being detained for years in Australia's prison on Manus Island, refugees restart lives in US under Obama-era deal.
by Ben Winsor
Shafiq waited for a bus in the gritty industrial outskirts of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
It was a cold January morning but Shafiq, thin with piercing blue eyes, just couldn't stop smiling.
"I never ever thought I'd end up in America," he said.
Smiling from ear to ear, Shafiq, whose surname is being withheld to protect his identity, boarded the bus to New York City.
"They asked me which city I wanted to go to and I said, 'New York', just because everybody told me it was amazing," he said.
Trump Kim summit: Stop romanticising a dictator, say North Korea artists
The once-elusive Kim Jong-un may be emerging as something of an international statesman, but North Korean artists in Seoul who personally suffered under his leadership tell the BBC's Heather Chen and Minji Lee that peace talks won't change a man they call a tyrant.
For several years, Song Byeok played an instrumental role in North Korea's propaganda machine. The painter from Hwanghae province was noticed by the ruling elite and chosen to be a state artist.
Mr Song painted vivid, striking images showing anti-American and Japanese slogans, happy workers and of course, the Kim dynasty.
"As a propaganda artist, you are expected to portray North Korea and its leaders as being the best in the world," says Mr Song, at his apartment in Seoul.
DONALD TRUMP’S SURVEILLANCE OF NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER IS A TRUE DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST THE PRESS
DONALD TRUMP’S REAL WAR on the press has finally begun.
Ever since he began his campaign for president, Trump has engaged in a largely rhetorical battle against the press, casting the reporters who cover him as the enemy of the average American and as disseminators of what he calls “fake news.” But for the most part, Trump’s bark has been worse than his bite. Unlike his predecessor, Barack Obama, Trump was not known to have spied on journalists or tried to jail them – as Obama did with me – for refusing to reveal their sources.
Until now.
Now we know that the Justice Department secretly seized the phone and email records of Ali Watkins, a New York Times reporter, in a leak investigation involving a former Senate staffer. It is the first time the Trump administration is known to have engaged in such an aggressive tactic against a reporter, and it is exactly the kind of press surveillance at which the Obama administration excelled. For years, conservatives attacked Obama for using such tactics to spy on reporters. Of course, there was no outcry from the right on Friday over Trump’s willingness to do the same thing.
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