Trump Weighs Risk of Summit After North Korean Reversal
President Donald Trump, increasingly concerned that his summit meeting in Singapore next month with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, could turn into a political embarrassment, has begun pressing his aides and allies about whether he should take the risk of proceeding, according to administration and foreign officials. Trump was both surprised and angered by a statement issued Wednesday by the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, who declared that the country would never trade away its nuclear weapons capability. The statement, while a highly familiar tactic by the North, represented a jarring shift in tone after weeks of conciliatory gestures.
Other WRAL Top Stories
Al-Sadr’s Reinvention in Iraq From Shiite Firebrand to Populist Patriot
Iraqis are still haunted by memories of death squads roaming Baghdad neighborhoods a decade ago. Many of the mass killings were done in the name of Muqtada al-Sadr, a cleric best remembered by Americans for fiery sermons declaring it a holy duty among his Shiite faithful to attack U.S. forces. Now, al-Sadr has come out as the surprise winner of this month’s tight elections, after a startling reinvention into a populist, anti-corruption campaigner. The results have Washington — and Tehran — on edge, as officials in both countries seek to influence behind the scenes efforts to build a coalition government.
One New Polio Case, a Historic Low, Buoys Pakistan’s Eradication Fight
A 3-year-old boy's polio diagnosis has prompted an emergency vaccination campaign in Dukki, a coal-mining town in Pakistan’s western province of Baluchistan where the family lives. Each of the last three years, nongovernmental organizations involved in fighting it have optimistically declared it the virus’ final year, seeking support from international donors and local officials as they embark on the task of vaccinating every child 5 and under in the country. But polio has persisted in western Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan, where increasing instability has left both countries at risk, the finish line just beyond reach.
In Australia, a Booming Economy With a Tragic Price for Farmers
As Australia’s rural economy has boomed on the back of growing exports, small farmers have not always shared in the bounty, with many forced into borrowing money or selling their farms. The emotional cost of these losses has become visible in a slowly unfolding mental health crisis in rural regions, seen most tragically in a rising number of suicides. Nationwide, people living in remote Australia now take their own lives at twice the rate of those in the city: Every year, there are about 20 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in isolated areas, according to studies of local health figures.
The Price of Reporting on the Mafia: Solitude With a Police Escort
For the past four years, before heading to work as a reporter covering the Mafia, Paolo Borrometi starts each morning with an espresso, a cigarette — and his police escort. Angering the mafia as a journalist in Italy makes for a lonely life. And yet Borrometi, 35, is in good company. Almost 200 reporters in Italy live under police protection, making it unique among industrialized Western countries, advocacy groups say. “We just want to do our job and our duty, to tell stories,” Borrometi told an assembly of students in Rome, where he now lives.
Russian Billionaire’s Trouble With Visa Fuels Speculation of British Crackdown
When London’s premier soccer team, Chelsea, took the field Saturday in an FA Cup final against its archrival, Manchester United, the team’s billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich was mysteriously absent. A person close to the Russian oligarch said that his investor visa expired at the end of April and that an application to renew it was taking far longer than usual. This has fueled speculation that the British authorities may be pulling the welcome mat for wealthy, Kremlin-connected Russians like Abramovich since a nerve agent attack in March on a retired Russian spy, Sergei V. Skripal.