Author: aejay_wp

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exuded confidence when he arrived in Vietnam on his heavily armored luxury train Wednesday, ahead of his summit with US President Donald Trump.

But as he departed Saturday, waving to crowds before boarding that train empty handed, the cracks in that confidence had been exposed.

“(Kim) did not have a backup plan,” a source familiar with the denuclearization talks tells CNN. “He came to Hanoi very confident and fully expecting a declaration to be signed.”

Two officials familiar with the talks agreed to speak with CNN anonymously, because they are not authorized to talk to the press. They describe a North Korean delegation that came into the summit fully expecting they would leave with a deal.

Fresh start

Denuclearization talks essentially ground to a halt within weeks of the June 12 Singapore summit. This time would be different, the North Koreans thought, because they were dealing directly with President Donald Trump.

In what was perhaps a sign of his self-assurance, Kim took his first ever question from a foreign journalist — a Washington Post reporter traveling with the White House press pool.

“From what I feel right now, I do have a feeling that good results will come out,” Kim said on Thursday morning.

On Thursday afternoon, the summit came to an abrupt and humiliating end for the North Koreans. Not only did President Trump walk out of the talks, he also snubbed the final meal he and Kim were supposed to share together.

The table was set and menu prepared for what should’ve been a friendly working lunch ahead of the scheduled joint signing ceremony. Instead, the snow fish and banoffee pie turned cold and the table sat empty — a symbol of the wasted opportunity in Hanoi.

“There was a huge need from the DPRK side to leave Hanoi with a signed agreement, especially with all the positive propaganda ahead of — and during — the summit period, which was unprecedented for the DPRK ” one source said.
“They were casting this summit as a big success before it even happened.”
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Playing hardball

The North Koreans had been playing hardball themselves ahead of the summit, even threatening to cancel talks if the US was unwilling to budge on lifting sanctions. But in exchange, they were prepared to offer what, in their view, was a significant concession.

“They were willing to give everything, including all the facilities at Yongbyon (North Korea’s known nuclear reactor). Not just one physical reactor, but the whole complex,” one source said.

“They were also willing to present their willingness to fully dismantle in the form of an official document. They were getting down to business pretty seriously. And then Mr. Trump, and the American side, turned down the proposal and left.”

The stunning collapse of talks created a crisis for Kim and his team of seasoned negotiators, who were left bewildered.

Conflicting narratives

President Trump claimed the North Koreans demanded all sanctions to be lifted, during his post-summit press conference — held two hours early Thursday in Hanoi. The North Koreans then took the extraordinary step of calling their own press conference in Hanoi late that evening, to insist they only asked for partial easing of sanctions.

“Holding an after-midnight press conference to react [to President Trump) and counterattack shows the level of desperation and the level dissatisfaction from the DPRK side,” a source said.

Kim Jong Un did not choose his lead negotiator Kim Yong Chol to give the press conference, instead he turned to Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui — both seasoned diplomats — perhaps a sign of his dissatisfaction with his ex-spymaster and his team’s lack of results.

And while North Korean state media coverage of the summit the next morning put a positive spin on the situation, the sullen mood of the North Korean leader was far more accurately conveyed during that late-night press conference, sources claimed.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe, who even stayed behind to answer questions, told reporters that Chairman Kim “may have lost the will to negotiate” and that Trump and the U.S. were “missing an opportunity that comes once in a thousand years” and claimed “our Chairman had a difficult time understanding the U.S. system of measuring.”

“Kim Jong Un instructed Choe Son Hui to say those things,” the source said, adding those statements could never be made without direct instruction from Kim.

“For this (diplomacy) to resume, its crucial for (South Korean President) Moon Jae-in to step back in and play the role of chief intermediary.”
Kim traveled to the summit hoping to advance North Korea’s economic goals and move closer to normalized relations with the US. It was a diplomatic gamble for both leaders that fell apart in spectacular fashion.

This major setback leaves the future of US-North Korean diplomacy uncertain for now, sources said.

Source: cnn.com

A group of New York business, political and community leaders have asked Amazon to reconsider its decision to scrap plans for a new campus in the city.

The campaign comes weeks after the firm backed away from the project, citing some local opposition.

Amazon had pledged to invest about $2.5bn ($1.9bn) to create the hub, which would add 25,000 jobs.

In exchange, the city and state had promised the firm almost $3bn in tax breaks and other benefits.

The award helped to fuel vocal opposition to the project, even though it was backed by New York’s governor and mayor.

Read: Amazon cancels New York City campus plan

Polls also indicated that the majority of local people supported it.

In an open letter to Amazon published in the New York Times on Friday, the group wrote: “A clear majority of New Yorkers support this project and were disappointed by your decision not to proceed.

“We all hope you will reconsider.”

Signatories to the letter included the heads of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and JetBlue Airways, as well as local leaders, including the heads of tenant associations and the president of the NAACP New York State Conference.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has also called Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to try to change his mind, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.

Read: Amazon sparks fears with sales forecast

However, the newspaper said there was little sign that the company is willing to re-open the conversation, which had spurred debate about corporate subsidies and concerns about how Amazon would affect rents in the area.

In addition to abandoning the plans for a New York campus, Amazon has also reportedly scaled back expansion plans in its hometown of Seattle.

Source: bbc.com

Two men have been released on bail after allegedly throwing fists and swearing during an execution in Texas.

Billie Wayne Coble, 70, was put to death by lethal injection nearly 30 years after murdering his wife’s parents and brother.

His son and grandson, Gordon Wayne and Dalton, allegedly became violent witnessing his death and were arrested after swearing and lashing out.

The pair were later released on bail of $1,000 (£755).

Gordon Wayne Coble’s wife also allegedly caused a disturbance but was not charged.

Billie Wayne Coble is the oldest inmate executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982.

The Vietnam War veteran was convicted in 1989 of killing Robert and Zelda Vicha and their son Bobby.

Coble had previously kidnapped his then-wife, Karen Vicha, apparently distraught over their pending divorce.

He was released on bail before killing her family members nine days later.

At his execution, his son and grandson allegedly began swearing and kicking other people in the witness room, with Gordon Wayne allegedly pounding on the window of the chamber.

Officers intervened and took them outside where they were charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Coble was once described by a prosecutor as having “a heart full of scorpions”.

Source: bbc.com

It’s been a week for Donald Trump.

Consider these five bad things that happened to him:

1. Michael Cohen testified:

No, Trump’s former fixer didn’t provide a smoking gun on his old boss. But Cohen did make things worse for Trump on at least three fronts: The hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, along with WikiLeaks and the Trump Tower Moscow development.

Cohen produced a check for $35,000 that he said was a partial reimbursement for the payment to Daniels. He said that he heard a phone call between Roger Stone and Trump about WikiLeaks. And he said he had 10 conversations with Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump about the Russia development.

2. No deliverables from North Korea summit:

Trump clearly thought his second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un might be the one that produced measurable results on the denuclearization front. It didn’t – and Trump left with America and North Korea seemingly on different pages about why the talks broke down.

3. The Jared Kushner security clearance story:

The New York Times reported Thursday night that Trump had ordered then-chief of staff John Kelly to get son-in-law Jared Kushner top-secret security clearance. Kelly disagreed with the decision – and wrote a contemporaneous memo about it. So did White House counsel Donald McGahn and career intelligence officers.

4. Felix Sater will be testifying publicly later this month:

After Cohen’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee wrapped up Thursday, committee chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced that Sater would be appearing in an open hearing before the committee March 14. Sater, a former FBI informant and a man who spent time in prison for stabbing a man in the face with a broken margarita glass, was the one who suggested to Cohen that Trump build in Moscow. And, oh yeah, Cohen will also be back to offer more testimony to House Intelligence on March 6.

5. Otto Warmbier’s parents blast his comment on Kim:

Just before leaving the North Korea summit in Vietnam, Trump was asked about North Korea’s 18-month imprisonment of Warmbier, a college student who died shortly after being returned to the United States. “(Kim) tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word,” Trump said.

Warmbier’s parents, who had been supportive of Trump for getting their son back, released a scathing statement: “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. … No excuses or lavish praise can change that,” they said.

Source: cnn.com

US President Donald Trump has asked China to “immediately” lift all tariffs on US agricultural products.

In a tweet, the president said he made the request because “we are moving along nicely with Trade discussions”.

Mr Trump has delayed tariffs scheduled for 1 March on Chinese goods due to progress in talks.

He has long complained about the country’s trading practices, and has imposed tariffs totalling more than $250bn (£189bn) on Chinese goods.

China has responded in kind, placing tariffs on $110bn of US products and accusing the US of starting “the largest trade war in economic history”.

Last month Mr Trump said the two countries were “very very close” to signing a new trade agreement, saying they had made “substantial progress” following a Washington summit.

While a rise in import duties on Chinese goods from 10% to 25% was due to come into effect on 1 March, the US is now planning a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The trade war has prompted worries in financial markets about the impact on the global economy.

The International Monetary Fund warned the trade war risked making the world a “poorer and more dangerous place” in its assessment on world growth last October.

Donald Trump’s art of the deal persona sold books like wildfire, anchored a blockbuster TV reality show and proved a potent theme for a White House run.

But it’s beginning to look a house of cards on which to build a presidency.
It’s not just that Trump — fresh from a collapsed summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, a loss to Democrats over his border wall and a set of underwhelming new trade deals — is not living up to his own billing.

The strategy of presenting Trump as a consummate dealmaker is becoming an albatross for the President, partly because he is operating in a domestic and international environment where there are few low-hanging deals on offer.

Democrats, with their new House majority, have little incentive to conclude joint projects that make the President look good as he seeks re-election.

Read: Inside Trump’s Hanoi heartbreak: A long road to nowhere

And an increasingly unstable global geopolitical environment, characterized by power grabs by rising developing nations such as China and resurgent giants such as Russia, is challenging US leverage more than at any time since World War II.

Trump’s disappointments dim the mystique central to his political appeal as an instinctive deal maker who can get his way through bluffing, charm and lightning business reflexes. The narrative built on the President as the master artist of the deal also threatens to keep lining him up for failure at an already fraught political moment and is creating an opening for potential 2020 opponents.

“The President treats everything like a real estate deal,” former Vice President Joe Biden said in Nebraska on Thursday. ” ‘Just let me in the room. I can convince the other party to make a deal.’ Well, it requires hard, hard, hard and consistent diplomacy.”

In fact, Trump has shown more proficiency in breaking deals than making them after pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris global climate pact and abandoning the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive multilateral trade deal.

A failure for ‘reality show’ diplomacy

North Korea’s refusal to make concessions at the summit was especially disappointing for Trump since he had done so much to build it up, and with deepening political and legal crises back home he badly needed a win.

In the days before he met Kim, Trump predicted that the talks would be “very productive” and said on Twitter that his tyrannical friend should take advantage of the “AWESOME” economic incentives for denuclearizing.

The White House had originally scheduled a signing ceremony for after the meeting at a Hanoi hotel, raising expectations that a deal was imminent after talk over the last week of some kind of peace pact.

Before he went to Hanoi, Trump defended his approach.

Read: Steph McGovern: ‘Creepy’ Donald Trump called me beautiful

“So funny to watch people who have failed for years, they got NOTHING, telling me how to negotiate with North Korea. But thanks anyway,” Trump tweeted.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak reported that top aides had told Trump a deal was tough to reach in Hanoi, but the President had harbored hopes that he could turn the tables. He was dismayed to find that the North Korean leader was so inflexible.

Had Trump been more aware of the tortuous history of US-North Korea negotiations, he might have concluded that Kim was behaving exactly to type.

As with other high-stakes situations during his presidency, Trump has seemed to believe his own propaganda, entering the talks convinced of his capacity to forge a deal.

For all the chummy letters he and Kim exchanged, it was a lesson that when the vital national interests of two nations clash, good personal chemistry goes only so far.

Trump’s failure raises the question of whether an off-the-cuff approach, in which powerful figures huddle to thrash out a deal, is as effective in international diplomacy as it was in the Manhattan real estate game.

Kim, according to the US side, was willing to take only limited steps to dispose of his nuclear arsenal in return for a full lifting of sanctions. The North Koreans maintained they would accept a partial easing of the trade embargo in return for dismantling a key nuclear facility.

Pyongyang’s tactics appeared to back up recent assessments by US intelligence agencies, which infuriated Trump, that the North would never renounce nuclear weapons completely because its leaders see them as a guarantee of regime survival.

Trump portrayed the impasse as part of a negotiating tactic, as if it were a hiccup in a real estate transaction.

“Sometimes, you have to walk,” Trump told reporters in Vietnam.
Many Republicans and North Korea analysts were actually relieved, having worried that Trump might make a huge concession in his zeal for a deal, and praised him for walking away.

Democrats pounced anyway, pointing out that Trump had now invested presidential prestige in two summits with Kim and achieved little.

“What we saw in Hanoi was amateur hour with nuclear weapons at stake and the limits of reality TV diplomacy,” said Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey on CNN’s “Newsroom.”

A thin resume on presidential deal making

Trump presented himself during his election campaign in 2016 as the man to fix Washington after a lifetime of pounding rivals in the boardroom.

“I have made billions of dollars in business making deals. Now I’m going to make our country rich again,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention.
Yet those mythical skills did not convince Mexico to pay for the border wall, as Trump promised at every rally. The President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is meanwhile preparing to unveil what Trump has called “the deal of the century” to forge Middle East peace – though most analysts believe it is dead on arrival.

And the President was comprehensively out-negotiated by Democrats using their new House majority in a government shutdown over border wall funding.
That clash revealed a flaw in the use of the deal-maker profile as an organizing principle. It was not that Trump could not get a deal — but he found that accepting a give and take agreement with Democrats was politically untenable.

In 2018, Trump was considering a proposal that could have seen him get more than $20 billion in wall funding in return for a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” — undocumented migrants brought to the US illegally as kids.
But because he anchored his viability as President on a minority of Americans for whom a hardline immigration policy is an almost existential issue, he had no political room to make the deal.

Months later, after the damaging shutdown drama, Trump has had to resort to a controversial national emergency declaration to try to fund his wall.
He has done a little better on trade, after renegotiated deals involving the US, Canada and Mexico and South Korea.

But his claims of huge new breakthroughs have been difficult to square with the results of negotiations that have reshaped trade deals rather than revolutionized them.

Last year, Trump proclaimed a “very big day” for free and fair trade after stepping back from a tariff war with Europe.

China pact could offer redemption for Trump the deal maker

But the “deal” in question was mostly an undertaking to talk about working toward zero tariffs, and no permanent agreement has yet been reached.
China pact could offer redemption for Trump the deal maker

Trump’s deal-making skills will next be tested in the endgame of long-running negotiations with China.

He and Chinese President Xi Jinping are under fierce domestic political pressure to drive a hard bargain. The President plans to host Xi at a summit at his Florida resort after he backed away from plans to impose tariffs this week on $200 billion in Chinese goods, citing “substantial progress.”

Washington is seeking far-reaching reforms of the Chinese economy — including to state industry subsidies — plus it wants to halt cyber-thefts of US secrets and hopes to get new protections for US intellectual property.

It would not be an exaggeration to say a deal along these lines would be one agreement that would match Trump’s hyperbolic claims of success.

Some Democrats and even some Republicans fear that Trump may be so desperate for a deal that he might be bought off with limited Chinese promises to tackle the trade deficit and to buy more US agricultural products from electorally key states that have been hit by the trade skirmishes.

It’s not clear how Trump’s unsuccessful opening to North Korea this week will play into the China deal. On the one hand, it could give Beijing’s negotiators extra leverage since the President could be even more keen to strike an agreement that will validate his deal making prowess.

But Trump’s willingness to walk away from the table with Kim could build his credibility if he threatens to take a similar approach with China.

Source: cnn.com

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been granted leave from prison to attend his grandson’s funeral.

The seven-year-old died of meningitis on Friday, and the jailed ex-leader will be allowed to go to the burial in Sao Paulo on Saturday.

Read: Venezuela crisis: Brazil vows to deliver aid, defying Maduro

Lula, as he is known, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on corruption charges last year.

The ex-leader says his conviction was politically motivated.

An iconic figure for the left in Latin America, the former trade unionist led Brazil between 2003 and 2010.

Read: Jean Wyllys: Gay Brazil politician will not return over death threats

But he was convicted for work done on a beachfront property, and in February a court doubled Lula’s sentence after he was found guilty of taking renovation work from a company implicated in a corruption scandal.

His lawyers said he would appeal against the new conviction.

Lula had asked permission to attend his brother’s funeral in January, but the country’s Supreme Court did not grant the request until the funeral was under way.

However, Paraná state government said Lula would be allowed to attend his grandson Arthur’s funeral in Sao Paulo.

Arrangements are being made to fly him to the city, roughly 340 kilometres (211 miles) away.

The former leader is currently jailed in a federal prison in Curitiba, capital of Paraná state. This will be his first time out after his conviction last April.

Lula’s was the most high-profile conviction from a sprawling anti-corruption investigation known as Operation Car Wash – dubbed “the largest foreign bribery case in history” by the US Department of Justice.

His supporters have insisted he is the victim of political persecution, with his left-wing Worker’s Party petitioning for his release.

President Jair Bolsonaro said he hoped Lula “rots in prison” in a video address in October.

Source: bbc.com

Charles Sirleaf, the son of Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has been arrested in relation to the illegal printing of more than $104m (£78m) worth of local banknotes.

He was a deputy governor of the Central Bank at the time of the incident in March last year. Mr Sirleaf’s former boss – ex-Central Bank head Milton Weeks – has also been detained.

Their lawyers are yet to comment.

The arrests come after a report into the missing millions was released.

The much-anticipated report, carried out by investigative auditing firm Kroll associates, was released by the US embassy on Thursday.

It was looking into the alleged disappearance of more than $100m (£75m) worth of newly printed Liberian banknotes last year.

It had been widely reported that shipping containers full of banknotes had vanished from Monrovia’s port and airport. However the report did not find any proof that this happened.

Instead, it found that Liberia’s Central Bank had acted unilaterally and unlawfully by printing and importing into the country three times the amount of banknotes it had been authorised to do.

What did the report find?

The country’s Central Bank, which had received new banknotes in a total of 20 shipments, was not able to properly account for the money.

The bank was also unable to explain and present proper documentation on how the money was infused into the Liberian economy, the report found.

The banknotes were ordered before President George Weah came to power in 2018, but critics say his had a hand in the poor handling of the consignment of banknotes – an allegation the administration has denied.

The report points to widespread inconsistencies, lack of proper documentations and explanation and “gross disrespect for money-ordering policy”.

How much money was ordered?

According to Kroll, the House of Representatives passed a resolution for the order of 5bn Liberian dollars to remove and replace old banknotes on the market.

The Central Bank requested additional 10bn Liberian dollars but the request was denied by the Senate. The bank went ahead anyway and engaged a company to print the additional banknotes.

“CBL (Central Bank of Liberia) management subsequently explained to Kroll that due to the urgency for new banknotes, the CBL did not follow its own internal tendering policies for the procurement of Crane AB,” the report says.

Kroll explains in the 67-page report that, despite repeated requests, the bank did not provide any explanation as to who had approved the injection of new banknotes into the Liberian economy without first removing the equivalent quantity from circulation.

What has the response been?

The US embassy says the report indentifies “systemic and procedural weakness” at the Central Bank and suspects shortcomings in the country’s fiscal and monetary management processes continue to this day.

In addition to the arrest of the Charles Sirleaf and Milton Weeks, another man, an official at the Central Bank, Dorbor Hagba, has also been arrested.

They are yet to be formally charged.

Source: bbc.com

Two towns in northern California’s wine-making region have been turned into virtual islands by record-breaking floodwaters, say authorities.

Sonoma County authorities, about 70 miles (110km) north of San Francisco, said about 3,600 people were evacuated after the Russian River flooded.

Torrential rain and snowfall has triggered the worst deluge in over 20 years, emergency officials say.

The towns of Monte Rio and Guerneville are currently only accessible by boat.

“You cannot get into or out of town,” Sonoma County officials said on Wednesday night in a mandatory evacuation order. “Guerneville is officially an island.”

Around 2,000 homes and businesses are currently underwater, Ms Khan said, adding that only around half of the town’s 4,500 residents complied with the official warning to leave.

On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in five counties experiencing flooding, mudslides, and damage to criminal infrastructure from the storms.

A hotel popular among tourists who came to see the region’s famed vineyards was evacuated, according to KGO-TV.

A guest there from North Carolina told the station that she “made a decision to take the rental car through the waist-high water and got two-thirds of the way and then the car stalled”.

Nina Sheehan said it was a mistake to have tried to pass by vehicle.

Emergency crews always warn people against ever driving through water over 1ft (30cm) deep. Two feet of water can wash away most cars, according to the National Weather Service.

Members of the National Guard were seen towing kayaks, canoes, and jet-skis to the water’s edge.

One trapped woman suffered a medical issue and was evacuated by helicopter, the sheriff’s office said.

A nearby mudslide, as well as downed trees, is also cutting off road access on Bohemian Highway.

One man, who was trapped with his wife in their vehicle by a mudslide, told KGO-TV that trees were falling all around them as the mud pushed them downhill.

“Oh, they just flew down every which way. They just came running down the hill, these big trees,” he said.

By Wednesday night the Russian River crested at 45ft – nearly 14ft above flood stage – before beginning to recede.

In nearby Sebastopol, the Laguna de Santa Rosa wetlands rose high enough to swamp the town’s main shopping district.

The Russian River Valley is home to more than 300 wineries, according to the Mercury News, and tourists there spent around $2.1bn (£1.6bn) in 2017.

It’s not yet clear to what extent the flooding has affected local vineyards, but photos clearly show fields that are underwater.

More rain is forecast in the coming days, weather officials warn, and an increased snowpack in several western states could continue to keep water levels higher than average.

Source: bbc.com

It was meant as the sequel to rival the original — another far-flung encounter, laced with backslapping and friendly banter alongside the world’s most ruthless dictator.

Instead, President Donald Trump’s second meeting with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un ended in a most uncharacteristic fashion for a showman commander in chief: fizzle.

The sometimes-contentious talks held inside the green-shuttered Metropole Hotel here were cut short when it became clear to Trump and his aides that Kim would not accept any outcome less than a full removal of crippling economic sanctions – a request North Korea’s foreign minister later denied.

Trump was surprised by Kim’s demand, according to a person familiar with the negotiations, believing the young despot had come to the Vietnamese capital prepared to deal. Even though his aides warned him the North Koreans were proving intractable in preliminary talks, Trump a self-professed deal artist – still felt there was a chance Kim would prove reasonable at the table.

He wasn’t, as Trump learned during a lengthy negotiating session that stretched beyond its allotted time. Speaking through two female interpreters, the two men went back-and-forth for more than two hours, failing even to strike an agreement on what the term “denuclearization” meant.

Even the promise of dismantling one of North Korea’s major nuclear sites fell short when Trump’s aides warned him that would not match the type of sanctions relief Kim was demanding. Trump told reporters, “They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that,” though later in the day Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho disputed that, stating North Korea asked only for a partial lifting of sanctions in exchange for the verified dismantling of uranium and plutonium production facilities at Yongbyon.

Whatever the case, Trump walked away – nicely, he said – without much clarity on what might come next in his foreign policy gambit.

He did not abandon the warmth he’s shown toward Kim over the past eight months, even going as far to say he took Kim at his word when he denied knowledge of North Korea’s detention of Otto Warmbier, the American student captured there only to later be returned to his family in a vegetative state. He died soon afterward.

Those remarks aside, there was palpable relief among many analysts and even some of Trump’s own aides, who’d entered the talks fearful the President might agree to dramatic steps in his bid to lure Kim into getting rid of his nuclear weapons – or to distract from the unpleasant scene of his former lawyer describing him as a racist fraudster on Capitol Hill.

According to people familiar with the conversations, Trump told some advisers ahead of the talks he did not want to appear overly thirsty to secure a deal, hoping to prove wrong the myriad analysts who predicted he’d give away the store to secure some type of progress.

He was advised by senior members of his national security team – including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton – that he should walk away from the talks if they proved unfruitful, according to an official familiar with the summit. He was cautioned in the days and even hours leading up to the talks that North Korean negotiators were unbudging in their demands on sanctions during pre-summit talks led by Stephen Biegun, the administration’s special envoy.

Pompeo, who joined Trump onstage for his concluding news conference, later told reporters as he was flying to Manila that despite eleventh-hour negotiations, it was evident the summit could end without an agreement.

“We were prepared for the potentiality of this outcome as well,” he said. “And tomorrow we will get right back at it.”

On Thursday, Trump still believed he could make something happen in Hanoi, one official said, and was disappointed to learn Kim was just as unbending as advertised. The evening before, top officials from his administration were still haggling to try and reach an agreement, despite indications of intransigence from the North Koreans.

“We were hopeful even this morning. We all went back and tried to sharpen our pencils and see if we couldn’t get a little further and we actually did,” Pompeo said as he left Hanoi. “But still, look, it is a long ways, we have always known it was a long ways.”

Summit cut short

The anticlimax came into relief midday. A signing ceremony listed on Trump’s official schedule only a day earlier was scrapped, a move euphemistically deemed a “program change” by the White House. A working lunch was called off, forcing the chefs inside Le Club restaurant to toss plates of foie gras and snow fish they’d prepared for the leaders. Both men peeled away in their respective motorcades well ahead of schedule.

As US officials streamed to the airport in advance of their planned departures, workers scrambled to load their bags, still strewn on the tarmac, into the belly of the plane. When Pompeo arrived to his aircraft early, the pilot wasn’t even aboard.

It was a rush to the exit for a summit that sputtered despite Trump’s efforts to boost interest. Even as his aides warned a second summit with Kim would lack the historic gravity of the first, Trump pressed forward, intent on recreating what he’d come to view as a highlight of his two-year presidency: the flashy breakthrough talks in Singapore eight months ago.

In the weeks and days leading up to the talks he heightened various dramas, from revealing the location to playing coy with concessions he was willing to offer. He invited along his friend, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, for an interview and companionship during his two-day stay in Hanoi. He said publicly he expected heavy media interest.

Yet Trump’s short stay in the Vietnamese capital seemed from the beginning to lack the kind of elaborate spectacle on display in Singapore. The making-of-history component that drew the world’s attention then was absent the second time around. There were no gimmicks like the faux movie trailer predicting economic growth the President commissioned to show Kim on an iPad.
Even Trump’s decision to walk away from the talks lacked drama.

“This wasn’t a walk away like you get up and walk out,” he said, describing a more polite exit than the table-slamming departure he staged during government shutdown talks with Democrats earlier this year.

Kim with the upper hand?

Before he arrived, there were even indications the North Koreans held an upper hand. When Kim learned midway through his days-long train journey to Vietnam that some White House reporters were staying and working from his hotel, he demanded they leave – a dictate the White House carried out. What ensued was a scramble among television networks to relocate their gear from the space they’d rented for tens of thousands of dollars, all in the moments before Trump touched down.

The choice of the Vietnamese capital city location also amounted to an early concession: the White House had pressed for the seaside resort of Da Nang, but Pyongyang insisted on Hanoi, where North Korea maintains an embassy.

Without a joint agreement staking out the road toward North Korea’s denuclearization, Trump left Hanoi in largely the same position he arrived. Once hoping the summit might prove wrong the detractors of his diplomatic gamble, instead Trump departed with all the same questions lingering about how he plans to convince Kim to abandon his arsenal.

The outcome shocked some US allies, who expected something more. South Korean President Moon Jae-in had told reporters only an hour before the talks broke up that he planned to watch the planned signing ceremony from home.

It wasn’t clear why the White House listed the signing ceremony on the public version of the President’s schedule the evening before, beyond sheer optimism. One official described it as a misstep since it wasn’t at all clear the two sides would agree to anything during the talks.

Trump did begin the day on an optimistic note – albeit a guarded one.
“I can’t speak necessarily for today, but I can say that this — a little bit longer term and over a period of time, I know we’re going to have a fantastic success,” he said at the start of the summit.

Distractions

He arrived to the talks having spent part of the evening before watching Michael Cohen, his onetime attorney who’d dramatically broken with the President, testifying before a congressional panel. He viewed part of the testimony from his hotel room in Hanoi, though not in its entirety. Some of his aides were spotted the hotel lobby watching the hearing together.

During his welcoming meeting with Kim on Wednesday evening, Trump did not appear pleased when a reporter asked about Cohen, offering a gruff “thank you” to signal the photo-op was over.

The White House later limited the number of reporters who could attend a second one, citing the “sensitive nature” of the meeting. And during his concluding news conference, Trump called on more foreign reporters than American ones — limiting the number of questions about Cohen to one.

Trump had entered the talks regretting the timing: details of the testimony in which Cohen described Trump as a cheat and liar emerged as Trump was overseeing a series of airline trade deals in the mustard-hued Vietnamese presidential palace.

“I think he was upset that he was going to have dueling shows here,” said Sen. Lindsay Graham, who spoke to Trump the night earlier. “It did bother him that there was going to be a split screen going between Cohen and him meeting with Kim Jong Un.”

“I said that is just the world in which you live,” the South Carolina Republican said.

Source: cnn.com

North Korea has denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that the country demanded total sanctions relief during a failed summit in Hanoi.

The North’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho was speaking after talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ended without agreement.

He said they asked only for partial sanctions relief in exchange for disabling its main nuclear complex.

The US insists this is not the case.

After their talks broke down, Mr Trump said Mr Kim had offered to dismantle all of the Yongbyon complex, the research and production facility at the heart of North Korea’s nuclear programme, a significant proposal.

But in return Mr Kim wanted all sanctions lifted, something the US was not prepared to offer, Mr Trump added.

North Korea: We asked for ‘partial relief’

At a late-night news conference after Thursday’s summit, Mr Ri said his country had made “realistic” proposals, including the complete decommissioning of Yongbyon, under the watch of US observers.

“This proposal was the biggest denuclearisation measure we could take at the present stage when taking into consideration the current level of confidence between the DPRK [North Korea] and the United States.”

In return, Mr Ri said, the North had wanted only partial lifting of sanctions “that hamper the civilian economy and the livelihood of our people”.

He told reporters Pyongyang had also offered to permanently halt nuclear and long-range rocket testing. He added that it might be hard to see an opportunity such as the Hanoi summit again.

“Our principal stand will remain invariable and our proposals will never change, even if the United States proposes negotiations again in the future.”
Why did the summit fail?

By Jonathan Head, BBC News, Hanoi

President Trump was more philosophical than defensive over the summit failure, suggesting he half-expected it to happen. And the North Korean reaction so far, from Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, has been measured. This was, to the participants, less a shock than a disappointment.

US officials say the North Koreans would not define exactly what they meant by the Yongbyon complex; the US is believed to have asked to include other hitherto unpublished nuclear facilities. Nor could the two sides agree on what denuclearisation means. US officials say they were being offered an end to testing, and partial destruction of facilities but that leaves North Korea’s existing nuclear arsenal intact.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they had cleared away what he called “a lot of the brush” in the weeks of pre-summit talks, but there remained gaps between the two sides they had hoped to close when the two leaders were in the same room. That didn’t happen.

President Trump has shown Chairman Kim that, notwithstanding his hunger for a deal, he is prepared to walk away. But he has also shown the world that his famous deal-making skills are no match for a diplomatic problem as thorny as North Korea.

Source: bbc.com

Somalia’s security forces are battling gunmen holed up in a building in Mogadishu, hours after a suicide car bomb attack on a busy street left at least five people dead, police say.

The attack was launched late on Thursday by suspected al-Shabab militants in an area lined with hotels, shops and restaurants.

The gunmen then seized a nearby building and were surrounded.

Exchanges of gunfire continued throughout the night in the capital.

“There are still some armed men inside a building,” police officer Ibrahim Mohamed was quoted as saying on Friday morning by the AFP news agency.

A number of civilians have been rescued from the building, reports say.

There are fears that the death toll will rise further.

The Islamist group al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, was forced out of Mogadishu in 2011 but continues to mount regular attacks in the city.

The US has sharply increased its air strikes against the group since President Trump took power.

The US State Department says al-Shabab retains control over large parts of the country and has the ability to carry out high-profile attacks using suicide bombers, explosive devices, mortars and small arms.

Two men have told the BBC they were abused hundreds of times by Michael Jackson, from the ages of seven and 10.

Wade Robson, 36, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme the singer had sexually abused him from the age of seven and tried to rape him when he was 14.

James Safechuck, 40, told the programme Jackson had sexually abused him “from the age of 10 until around 14”.

Jackson’s family say there’s “not one piece of evidence” to prove the claims.

The two men have also spoken out in the documentary Leaving Neverland.

Warning: This article contains descriptions some may find offensive or upsetting

Asked if the abuse had occurred “hundreds and hundreds of times”, both Mr Robson and Mr Safechuck agreed that this had been the case.

Mr Robson told the programme: “Every time I was with him, every time I stayed the night with him, he abused me.”

Jackson had fondled him, “touching my entire body”, and made him watch the singer performing a sex act, he said.

And then, when he was 14, Jackson had tried to rape him.

‘Show our love’

“That was one of the last sexual abuse experiences we had,” Mr Robson told the programme.

Jackson had groomed him to believe they “loved each other – and this is how we show our love”, he said.

“And then he would immediately follow that up with, ‘But If anybody else ever found out what we are doing, you and I would go to jail for the rest of our lives and our lives would fall apart,’ he and I would fall apart,” Mr Robson told the programme.

“All of this was terrifying to me.

“The idea of being pulled away from Michael – this man, this other-worldly figure, this god to me who had now become my best friend – no way was I going to do anything that would pull me away from him.”

Mr Robson said Jackson had told him “I was his best friend and the only person he had ever done these sexual acts with”.

“So therefore I was – out of all the boys in the world – the chosen one, I thought,” he said.

Mr Safechuck told the programme his abuse had begun with Jackson teaching him how to perform a sex act, at the age of 10.

“Then you start French kissing – he said I taught him how to do that,” Mr Safechuck said.

And this had been followed by further abuse and other sex acts.

Mr Safechuck told the programme Jackson had been able to abuse him over such a sustained period of time because he had also successfully groomed his parents.

“There’s a long grooming process where Michael inserts himself into your family and becomes a part of your family,” he said.

“It takes him a while to build up the trust – it doesn’t happen overnight.”

And he then “makes a wedge between you and your parents – and he isolates you from everybody else”.

‘Master manipulator’

“At the same time when you’re being abused, a part of you is dying,” Mr Safechuck added.

Mr Robson also described Jackson as a “master manipulator”.

He had driven “this wedge between myself and my father, [and] my mother and my father” to make it easier for the abuse to occur, he told the programme.

He also said part of the responsibility for the abuse should fall “at the door of all the other people, all the other employees that were around Michael and me and James [Safechuck] all the time, who looked the other way”.

‘Very innocent’

In response, Michael Jackson’s brothers Tito, Marlon and Jackie, and nephew Taj Jackson rejected the claims in Leaving Neverland – which is broadcast in the UK next week – that the singer had abused children.

Taj said his uncle’s behaviour had seemed odd to some but had been “very innocent”, adding: “His naivety was his downfall.”

And Marlon said there was “not one piece of evidence” to back up the allegations.

Michael Jackson’s estate, meanwhile said Mr Robson and Mr Safechuck had previously “testified under oath that these events never occurred”.

“They have provided no independent evidence and absolutely no proof in support of their accusations, which means the entire film hinges solely on the word of two perjurers,” it said.

Source: bbc.com

Ryan Adams has cancelled his upcoming tour of the UK, in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct by the star.

Nine dates, including two at London’s Royal Albert Hall, have been scrapped.

Several fans had already sought refunds, saying they could no longer support the artist.

“Full refunds to ticket purchasers will be processed by end of day on Monday,” said Ticketmaster in a tweet announcing the news.

The cancellation comes two weeks after the New York Times published a report containing allegations that Adams had exchanged sexually inappropriate messages with a teenage girl.

Adams’ lawyer said the star “unequivocally denies” engaging in inappropriate communications with someone he knew was underage.

The FBI later said it would investigate the texts to determine whether Adams was aware of her age.

The New York Times story also contained interviews with several women who said Adams had offered them help with their careers as a pretext for sex, and allegations of psychological abuse from the musician’s former wife, Mandy Moore.

Adams’ initial response was to threaten legal action, in a tweet that said the newspaper was “going down”.

He quickly deleted that message and issued a statement calling the article “unsettlingly inaccurate,” and apologising to anyone he had hurt, “however unintentionally”.

The two men who have accused Michael Jackson of sexual abuse in documentary Leaving Neverland say they didn’t feel his behaviour was wrong at the time.

In an interview with CBS show This Morning, Wade Robson said: “The feeling was, out of all the kids in the world, here I am. Michael chose me.

“And he also told me ‘I’ve never done this with anyone else. He chooses me, he loves me.”

Jackson’s family say there’s “not one piece of evidence” to prove the claims.

Robson added: “I believe there are many other boys that Michael abused. I find it hard to believe he had boys around for any other reason than to sexually abuse them.”

James Safechuck, the other man who appears in Dan Reed’s film and says Jackson abused him, told CBS he thought he would never reveal his story.

“I don’t know, would I be taking this to the grave? I’d certainly planned on doing that. I had no expectations of ever telling anyone. If he was still alive, maybe I’d have taken it to my grave.”

Safechuck, 40, and Robson, 36. both make separate claims in the film that they were abused by Jackson as children in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The interview with the two men comes after four members of Michael Jackson’s family gave an interview on CBS on Tuesday.

His brothers Tito, Marlon and Jackie and nephew Taj Jackson rejected the film’s claims that Jackson abused children during his lifetime.

Taj said his uncle’s behaviour seemed odd to some, but was “very innocent”, adding: “His naivety was his downfall.”

Marlon said there was “not one piece of evidence” to back up the allegations.

None of the family members interviewed has watched the documentary but Marlon said “I trust my attorney”.

The Jackson estate is also currently suing HBO for $100m (£77m) over Leaving Neverland, which is set to be broadcast on the US network and on Channel 4 next week.

They claim the film, which details the singer’s alleged sexual abuse of two boys, breaches a non-disparagement clause in an old contract.

HBO responded by saying the film’s broadcast still go ahead, but now several days earlier than previously agreed – on the 3rd and 4th of March.

Source: bbc.com

Huawei has sought to repair its image in the US through a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal, which says: “Don’t believe everything you hear.”

In an open letter, executive Catherine Chen invited US media to visit the firm to clear up “misunderstandings” created by the US government.

The US has been pressuring its allies to shun Huawei equipment on the grounds of national security.

Some governments have done just that, putting the firm on the defensive.

“I am writing to you in the hopes that we can come to understand each other better. In recent years, the US government has developed some misunderstandings about us,” Ms Chen, director of the board at Huawei, said in the letter.

The advert, posted on Twitter by a Wall Street Journal reporter who covers cyber security, invited members of the US media to “visit our campuses and meet our employees”.

“Don’t believe everything you hear. Come and see us. We look forward to meeting you,” it said.

This is not the first time Huawei has tried to change its image in the West. It recently sought to appeal to New Zealand’s love for sport by placing advertisements in two major newspapers and on billboards.

“5G without Huawei is like rugby without New Zealand,” the ad read.

Why is Huawei doing this?

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has been the focus of intense international scrutiny lately, with several countries raising security concerns about its products.

Australia, New Zealand, and the US have already banned or blocked Huawei from supplying equipment for their future 5G mobile broadband networks.

The US is also pursuing criminal charges against Huawei and its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, including money laundering, bank fraud and stealing trade secrets.

Huawei denies any wrongdoing and its founder Ren Zhengfei recently told the BBC that his daughter’s arrest was politically-motivated.

Canada has until the end of Friday to decide whether to authorise the start of a formal extradition hearing against Ms Wanzhou.

Not all countries are succumbing to the pressure, however. UK cyber-security chiefs recently determined that any risk posed by involving Huawei in UK telecoms projects could be managed.

Recent comments by Mr Trump were also interpreted as him taking a softer stance on the firm. He said he wants the US to become a technology leader through competition rather than by blocking others, without specifically mentioning Huawei.

Source: bbc.com

Tesla has announced it will start selling a version of its Model 3 in the US at a price of $35,000 (£26,400), finally delivering on a promise it made more than two years ago.

To help lower the price the firm plans to close showrooms and is switching to an online-only sales model.

The electric car company announced the Model 3 car in 2016 as an alternative to its luxury offerings.

However, as recently as September, the average selling price exceeded $50,000.

Closing physical stores will allow the firm to cut costs by about 5%, savings it is using to reduce prices across its line-up of vehicles, chief executive Elon Musk said.

He declined to say how many stores would close, or how many people will lose their jobs as a result of the move, but said making the change was necessary as Tesla works toward its bigger goal of making electric cars mainstream.

Tesla currently has 378 stores and service locations worldwide.

What is the Model 3?
The Model 3 electric car has a range of 220 miles, a top speed of 130 mph and 0-60mph acceleration of 5.6 seconds.

More than 400,000 customers signed up for the car when it was first announced, but production issues, higher prices and other delays caused troubles following its launch.

Over the last year, the firm has shrunk the Model 3 battery, tweaked its manufacturing process, and reduced costs in other ways to hit the lower price, while still protecting profit margins.

Fewer showrooms: How will that work?

Mr Musk said he was not worried that a shift to online-only sales would put off customers.

The firm already has a much smaller physical presence in the US than most other car companies.

In a blog post, Tesla said a test drive was not needed because you can return a car within seven days, or after driving 1,000 miles, and get a full refund.

“Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free,” the blog said.

The company is confident that will not happen often.

Tesla’s website said cars ordered now would be ready for delivery in two to four weeks’ time. However, customers with orders already in queue will get priority, which could delay some deliveries until June, Mr Musk said.

The firm added it would provide full refunds for cars returned within seven days.

The lower-priced model is expected to be available for order in Europe and China in three to six months’ time.

Why is the Model 3 important?

Tesla has already announced thousands of job cuts since June, as it tries to balance its books after years of losses.

Strong sales of the Model 3 are critical to that effort.

The firm managed to scrape a profit in the final two quarters of 2018, but Mr Mush said it expected to post a loss for the first three months of this year.

“It has been insanely difficult,” Mr Musk said, referring to delivering on the $35,000 price promise.

Delivering a car for $35,000 – about the average cost of a new vehicle in the US – is a “potential game changer” for Tesla’s growth, said Daniel Ives, a managing director at Wedbush Securities.

“While there are still questions that need to be answered around logistics and delivery… we believe this strategic shift was the right move at the right time for Tesla,” he wrote in a note.

If you’ve ever wondered how those enormous Tesla stores in fancy shopping centres make money, well, they don’t.

At least, they don’t make enough money for Tesla to keep them all open if it also wants to be able to afford to produce a $35,000 car – a car its investors (and many customers) have been desperately waiting for since it was announced way back in March 2016.

The hope is that this is the car that brings a Tesla into the affordability zone for a whole new type of customer. It’s still an incredibly expensive car for almost all of us, but for a luxury electric vehicle this is new ground.

The Tesla brand, and its ramped up production capabilities, make it likely the cheap(er) Model 3 will turn out to be a popular proposition.

But Tesla’s admission it would not, as it had previously said, turn a profit this quarter, has spooked investors – as has admitting it needs to lay off workers and scale back its bricks-and-mortar presence in order to make good on a long-held promise is of concern.

Coupled with his SEC woes lingering overhead, Mr Musk hasn’t exactly lost his investors’ confidence, but he hasn’t exactly filled them with it either.

Source: bbc.com

Famed composer André Previn, who won four Academy Awards for his work on films like “Porgy & Bess” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. He was 89.

His management company, IMG Artists, confirmed the news.

Previn’s manager, Linda Petrikova told CNN that he died Thursday morning in his Manhattan home after a short illness.

During his seven decade career, Previn earned four Oscars, 10 Grammy Awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

He was also named honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Previn was born in Berlin in 1929. His family immigrated to the United States, and he was raised in Los Angeles. In 1967, he became the music director for the Houston Symphony Orchestra and in 1968 took on the role of principal conducted for the London Symphony Orchestra.

He worked as the composer on “The Fortune Cookie” in 1966 and composed music for films like “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in 1967 as well as 1970’s “The Music Lovers.”

Previn was married five times. His third wife was actress Mia Farrow, to whom he was married from 1970-1979.

Previn and Farrow had six children together