Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s meeting, for all its hype, has not achieved much, and Bangladesh is introducing a new visa category.
Donald Trump might have just lost the ‘Art of the Deal’
US President Donald Trump has allowed himself to be played, writes Eli Lake in Bloomberg, adding that his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un seems to have been just “diplomatic pageantry”.
“But it’s telling that the vague agreement reached at the summit does not include any language on verification, or even a timetable for next steps. For now, Trump is asking the world to take his word on it,” writes Lake, adding, “Trump is offering Kim lavish legitimacy before Kim has even agreed on a timetable to disarm.”
In The New York Times, Nicholas Kristoff writes that Trump was “hoodwinked” in Singapore. “Kim forced the American President, through his nuclear and missile tests, to accept North Korea as a nuclear equal, to provide security guarantees to North Korea, and to cancel war games with South Korea that the North has protested for decades,” he adds, “In exchange for these concessions, Trump seems to have won astonishingly little.”
What video did Trump show Kim?
“Will this leader choose to advance his country and be a part of the new world?” asks the video that US President Donald Trump showed Kim Jong-un at the Singapore summit. The alarmingly passive aggressive 4-minute video talks about the vision that Trump has for America and the world and indirectly promises dire consequences if Kim does not comply with it.
A ‘step forward for the Korean peninsula’
Donald Trump said he had agreed to North Korea’s demand to “stop the war games”, which has been interpreted as a hint to stop joint military exercises with South Korea.
“If the US stops joint military exercises with South Korea, it will be a big step forward on the Korean peninsula,” China’s Global Times editorialises. “If achieved, China’s ‘suspension for suspension’ proposal, which calls for North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of US-South Korea military exercises, would come to reality. A new leaf will be turned over.”
Kim ‘played smart’ at the summit
The North Korean leader seems to have held his ground and avoided any formal contract to initiate denuclearisation, write Lee Jeong ho and Kinling Lo for the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
“In the face of Trump’s well-honed, reality-TV style and reputation as an unpredictable diplomatic opponent, the North Korean leader avoided the inclusion of CVID — or complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearisation — in the summit’s joint statement, all without appearing confrontational,” they add.
Kim has always Kim has always insisted on a “phased and synchronous” — or “action-for-action” — approach to giving up his nuclear weapons, which should involve the international community compensating Pyongyang for every step it takes to abandon nuclear arms.
British government holds ‘meaningful vote’ over Brexit
The EU withdrawal bill has returned to the House of Commons, and the government has narrowly avoided defeat on the bill, reports the BBC.
The ministers managed to block members of Parliament from having the power to decide what happens with Brexit if they do not agree with the deal negotiated between the European Union and the UK government.
“Tuesday’s Commons debate marked the start of the government’s attempts to undo most of the changes to its EU withdrawal bill that were put forward by the House of Lords,” the report says.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made a lot of money outside the White House
Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter, and her husband Jared Kushner made $82 million in outside income while serving as senior White House advisers in the year 2017, reports The Washington Post.
The total amount is known to the public through financial disclosure forms, which were released Monday. The huge amount is “an extraordinary income flow that ethics experts have warned could create potential conflicts of interests”.
A new visa category in Bangladesh for humanitarian purposes
Bangladesh will create a new visa category for foreigners who intend to enter the country to help Rohingya refugees, reports The Dhaka Tribune. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the new category will ease complications for aid workers.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017 after being victims of the Buddhist dominated Myanmar government which refused them citizenship. In September, the Bangladesh government had allotted homes for the 400,000 people at Cox’s Bazar, but restricted their movement around the area.
The Prime Minister also said that her government was making shelter for the refugees, ahead of the upcoming monsoon season.
The UN has withdrawn aid workers from a Yemen city amid attack fears
“The United Nations has withdrawn its international aid workers from the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah amid intense negotiations to avert a devastating attack by pro-government forces backed by the United Arab Emirates,” reports NPR.
A siege of the port will put hundreds of civilians at risk. In the past week, the fighting in civil war-hit Yemen has intensified. Emirati forces, part of the Saudi-led coalition that supports the Yemini government-in-exile, have advanced on Hodeidah.
Trump adviser apologises for saying there’s a ‘special place in hell’ for Trudeau
Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, has apologised for saying that there’s a “special place in hell” for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, reports CNN. Navarro had made the statement in reference to the trade standoff between the two neighbours.
Navarro’s comments were part of the White House’s stream of criticism of Trudeau and the recent G7 summit, which came after the Canadian PM announced that his country would not be “pushed around” and would impose retaliatory tariffs against those brought in by Trump.