We now know where North Korea and US stand – and the gaps that still need to be closed
The Hanoi summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un may have broken down abruptly and stalled negotiations for the time being, but it has opened a window into the talks that leaves some hope that a compromise can be reached.
Related: Vietnam summit: North Korea and US offer differing reasons for failure of talks
Continue reading...Mining operations continue while more than 500 tonnes of fuel oil remain on board MV Solomon Trader, almost a month after it ran aground
The environmental damage from an oil spill in the Solomon Islands has been worsened by a bauxite mining company’s continued loading operations near the site where a $30m bulk carrier went aground last month.
The Solomon Islands government has sought urgent help from Australia to deal with the environmental disaster because of frustrations at the slow progress in dealing with the spill.
Continue reading...The US president boasts of being a deal maker. But his summit with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi has ended in failure and recrimination
Only a year ago, many feared that Donald Trump’s dealings with Kim Jong-un might end with a bang. Then came the Singapore summit. Mr Trump boasted that they “fell in love” and that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat. The bromance did not look sustainable. Now a follow-up in Hanoi has ended in a whimper, collapsing without the heralded signing of at least a limited deal.
North Korea needs an easing of sanctions and wants to pursue economic development; Mr Trump wants a diplomatic triumph with his name emblazoned on it. But these powerful drivers are not enough to bridge the gulf between the sides. While North Korea speaks of denuclearisation on the peninsula, it has no intention of unilateral disarmament – as US intelligence officials note. Gestures such as halting missile tests have some value, in real terms as well as in building the relationship, and disabling the Yongbyon nuclear plant would have more; the question is how much they are worth. Many had feared Mr Trump might pay too highly, as he did in Singapore.
Continue reading...North Korean despot and US president’s wildly different perceptions exposed in Hanoi
As with many disastrous second dates, the collapse of Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un was made inevitable by the misreading of each other’s intentions at their first encounter.
Since their initial meeting in Singapore last June, the US president had become fixated on what he saw as a close personal bond with the North Korean dictator half his age. He told his supporters: “We fell in love ... He wrote me beautiful letters.”
Continue reading...President says he believes North Korean leader knew nothing about treatment of US student
Donald Trump has said he took Kim Jong-un “at his word” when he denied any responsibility in the imprisonment and torture of Otto Warmbier that led to the US student’s death in 2017.
“Some really bad things happened to Otto,” Trump said. “But Kim tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”
Continue reading...The US president and North Korean leader will sit down in Hanoi to discuss denuclearisation
Trump and Kim are arriving at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi to continue their talks.
#TrumpKimSummit Day 2 getting underway. Both @POTUS and Kim Jong Un arriving at @MetropoleHanoi. pic.twitter.com/M9gedNAdKm
A reminder of the other Trump news story going around at the moment – and the one we suspect the president would much rather we not be talking about – the explosive allegations from Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Sen. Lindsey Graham tells @sunlenserfaty he spoke to President Trump last night. “I think he was upset he was gonna have dueling shows here," Graham said. "That it did bother him there's going to be a split screen between Michael Cohen and Kim Jong Un."
Continue reading...Move follows intense campaign by refugee advocates for all children sent to the island by the Australian government to be taken off
The last four children living in Australian government-run offshore processing on Nauru have now left the island, amid a group of 19 people flown to the US for resettlement.
The group includes a number of Iranians, according to refugee advocates, contradicting persistent suspicions that Donald Trump’s travel ban on six nationalities was blocking refugees from the resettlement scheme.
Continue reading...Like most theatrical reboots, the strain in keeping things the same in Vietnam highlighted the small way things changed
Donald Trump vowed that his second meeting with Kim Jong-un would be at least the equal of the first and his Vietnamese hosts tried their utmost to make that happen.
In Hanoi on Wednesday evening, every effort was made in recreating the circumstances and ambience of Singapore, scene last June of the historic first meeting between an incumbent US president and a North Korea leader.
Continue reading...Hanoi was buzzing as it prepared for the meeting between the US president and the North Korean leader, with a heavy security presence amid fanfare and flags
Continue reading...The leaders of the US and North Korea meet in Hanoi, Vietnam, at the start of the second nuclear summit. The pair, who looked pleased to see each other as they shook hands, were to hold a brief discussion on Wednesday before full meetings on Thursday
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un have arrived in Hanoi for meeting to discuss denuclearisation but claims from Cohen seem likely to dominate
Trump has now tweeted to deny media reports that, going in to the summit, his negotiating position is less than strong and he is preparing to make concessions to North Korea in exchange for only vague promises of nuclear disarmament
All false reporting (guessing) on my intentions with respect to North Korea. Kim Jong Un and I will try very hard to work something out on Denuclearization & then making North Korea an Economic Powerhouse. I believe that China, Russia, Japan & South Korea will be very helpful!
And here it is: Trump has dived into the Cohen allegations on twitter, accusing his former lawyer of lying and fraud (and also referring to himself in the third person)
Michael Cohen was one of many lawyers who represented me (unfortunately). He had other clients also. He was just disbarred by the State Supreme Court for lying & fraud. He did bad things unrelated to Trump. He is lying in order to reduce his prison time. Using Crooked’s lawyer!
Continue reading...At least two dead and 14 injured in the incident in Sulawesi
Dozens of people have been buried by a landslide at an unlicensed goldmine in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, the national disaster agency has said, as emergency personnel used their bare hands and farm tools to reach victims calling for help from beneath the rubble.
The agency said two people were dead and 14 were injured, with at least 60 buried.
Continue reading...From the easing of sanctions to denuclearisation and ending the Korean war, there’s a lot to play for in Hanoi
Donald Trump has said that when he meets Kim Jong-un in Hanoi’s Metropole Hotel on Wednesday evening, the potential for a deal is “awesome”.
Few would argue with that. A move to limit the North Korean arsenal and begin to re-integrate the country back into the international community, would be a significant step away from the brink of nuclear war.
Continue reading...Bahrain will do anything to hunt down dissident athletes and their families. International sporting bodies must step up to protect the helpless
I can never truly express my gratitude to you all, the Australian people, for bringing me home. There were countless dark moments over the 76 days of my detention, when my future looked nothing but bleak. The prospect of never seeing my wife, family or friends again became too close to reality.
The moment I was reunited with my loved ones, hundreds of supporters made it to the airport to give me a warm welcome that went far beyond my imagination. It is something I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Continue reading...Shape of You and Love me Harder among western hits deemed obscene and playable only between 10pm and 3am
More than a dozen western pop songs, including Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, have been deemed pornographic and banned from being played in daylight hours in Indonesia’s notoriously conservative West Java province.
The West Java broadcasting commission singled out 85 songs, including 17 western pop songs, it said contained adult and offensive content.
Continue reading...The US military blocked internet access to a company underwritten by an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin during the 2018 midterms
Attorneys and political commentators are alerting a sitting US congressman to the US law on “witness tampering” after the representative in question, Matt Gaetz, appeared to threaten Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who testified before Congress today.
Gaetz, who is from Florida, said:
Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot...
This should not be legal. Intimidating a witness before Congress should be against the law. https://t.co/uVBZR3NzXf
Who wants to tell @mattgaetz that sitting members of Congress aren’t immune from indictment?
My short text convo with @mattgaetz just now:
Me: Congressman, Any chance you have a few minutes to discuss what you implied with your tweet to Michael Cohen? Perhaps a preview?
Gaetz: Watch tomorrow.
Me: Will do -- anything I should be prepared for?
Gaetz: Fireworks https://t.co/g1bwYcjvrg
UPDATE:
Me: Any response to those who say you’re witness tampering? @mattgaetz: I’m witness testing. We still are allowed to test the veracity and character of witnesses, I think.
Me: So you disagree with those who say you’re witness tampering?
Gaetz: Yes. https://t.co/aBRZAF314A
Top strategists from Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign announced they would not be sticking with the Vermont senator for his 2020 campaign.
The New York Times said the departure of the three men, who produced Sanders’ 2020 announcement video last week, was “abrupt.”
Their departure could be indicative of Sanders’ desire to get serious about making changes to his team of strategists in an effort to make a deep run in a wide open Democratic primary field.
Continue reading...The North Korean leader has been filmed taking a pre-dawn smoke break while a woman who appears to be his sister holds a crystal ashtray for him. The footage was captured at Nanning railway station in China, hours before Kim's arrival in Vietnam for a summit with the US president, Donald Trump
Continue reading...Most concrete from demolished buildings is simply dumped, much of it illegally. But there’s a better way – and it involves lightning
At the Shenzhen dump, huge shards of dusty concrete lie in imposing piles. Once the very foundation of this Chinese city, these blocks now seem grotesque in their magnitude, and unsettling in their utter uselessness. Jumbled up with the other relics of modern construction – bricks, wood and steel – and dotted with plastic bags and bottles, it could take centuries, even millennia, for Shenzhen’s discarded concrete to disintegrate back into sand.
China produces more construction waste than any other country - around 2 billion tonnes per year (pdf), or around 4kg per person per day. Two million tonnes of this is concrete. In Shenzhen, which has grown from a town with 30,000 residents to a megacity with 11 million in just 35 years, a full 84% of that construction waste is unceremoniously dumped. It doesn’t even all make its way to official landfills, which don’t have the capacity to handle it, so almost half is disposed in unlicensed sites, or illegally tipped.
Continue reading...When the 2004 tsunami struck, the Moken were saved by their knowledge of the sea. But a catastrophic blaze has exposed authorities’ errors in the rebuilding of their homes
Where stilted huts once stood on the white sand, now there are just charred remains. “This is worse than after the tsunami,” says Hook, a Moken sea nomad surveying the damage fire has wreaked on his former village home in Au Bon Yai bay, Surin island.
After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami destroyed the previous Moken settlement here on Thailand’s Andaman sea, Hook says people were able to recover some belongings. This time, when fire broke out on 3 February this year, nothing was left. Now the community fears for the future as the authorities begin to reconstruct the village in its original design, an unsafe housing model consisting of highly flammable structures, densely packed together. And it has reignited a row about the Moken’s rights to their ancestral lands.
Continue reading...North Korea’s leader has finally arrived in Hanoi after boarding a train on Saturday, travelling through China and then transferring to a Mercedes at the Vietnam border for the final 170km of the journey
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