The U.S. intends to continue its joint drills with South Korea at the conclusion of the Olympics and Paralympics, a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday. Seoul announced that North Korea said it might be willing to talk with the U.S. about denuclearization, a step the regime has previously said it would never take.
Why it matters: North Korea views those joint drills as highly threatening and as preparation for invasion. This alone could stymie any potential talks between the North and the U.S.
At a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden, President Trump expressed a level of hope and confidence following news that North Korea indicated it be would be open to discussing denuclearization in exchange for the regime's safety. In response to whether Trump will be meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he left the door open saying, "we'll see what happens."
"We have come certainly a long way at least rhetorically, it would be a great thing for the world, for the Peninsula."
— Trump during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Sweden
U.K. counter-terror police have taken over the investigation into how former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia became critically ill after exposure to a suspected toxic substance, with the government warning on Tuesday of “harsh consequences” if any state, including Russia, is found to be involved.
Why it matters: Russia is already under mounting pressure over rising evidence of the hybrid war — which includes cyberwarfare, disinformation, targeted assassinations and support for proxies fighting wars abroad — that it is waging against the West. If the Kremlin is found to be involved in the poisoning of the former spy on U.K. soil, the British government pledged to explore further sanctions on Russia, on top of those already being applied by the U.S. and the E.U. for the annexation of Crimea and fomenting of conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Service Committee that Russia and China are both developing state-of-the-art military technology to counter the U.S., per the AP.
The futuristic weapons: Ashley says China is developing long range cruise missiles and a bomber with a nuclear mission, which could give China a triad of weapons systems. The country is also developing sophisticated ballistic missile warheads and hypersonic glide vehicles that could counter the ballistic missile defense system, per Ashley. Last week Russia announced new nuclear weapons Putin says can’t be intercepted.
"I'm quite skeptical about all of this," said Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday referring to talks of a denuclearization breakthrough with North Korea.
Why he is skeptical: Past administrations "have been frustrated" with previous talks and so-called breakthroughs since many "have just given them time to further develop" their nuclear capability, added Coats.
Following discussions between South Korean and North Korean officials in Pyongyang, North Korea has expressed a willingness to discuss denuclearization with the U.S. if the safety of its regime is guaranteed, according to Bloomberg News. This is the first time since 2003 that the regime has floated denuclearization.
Other breakthroughs, per the AP: The Koreas have agreed to meet at a summit again in April and will establish a telephone hotline between their military leaders to avoid escalation. North Korea also agreed to a moratorium on its nuclear and missile tests if the U.S. comes to the table for direct talks, though President Trump has said negotiation will happen only after denuclearization.
A Russian military cargo plane has crashed at Khmeimim Air Base on the eastern coast of Syria, killing 33 passengers and 6 crew members, reports the AP. The Russian Ministry of Defense has said the crash was the result of a technical error and insists that it was not under fire.
President Trump reacted to the news out of Seoul on Tuesday that North Korea has expressed a willingness to discuss denuclearization with the U.S. in exchange for the regime's safety — using his favoritephrase:
He later expressed optimism for the talks, saying "a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned."
During their almost two hour meeting at the White House today, President Trump didn't share with Prime Minister Netanyahu a draft of the U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Netanyahu said at a briefing with Israeli reporters after the meeting that Iran, not the Palestinian issue, was the main subject of his conversation with the President.
Though it's largely remained outside the spotlight on this topic, Reddit said on Monday that Russian propaganda related to the last presidential election was shared by at least "thousands" of U.S. users.
"[F]rom everything we can tell, these users are mostly American, and appear to be unwittingly promoting Russian propaganda ... I believe the biggest risk we face as Americans is our own ability to discern reality from nonsense, and this is a burden we all bear. I wish there was a solution as simple as banning all propaganda, but it’s not that easy."
— CEO Steve Huffman in a Reddit post.
Why it matters: Congressional investigators are seeing more information from Reddit as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the Washington Post reports.
A Russian who was jailed in 2006 for spying for Britain has been hospitalized in Salisbury, England, after being exposed to an unknown substance Sunday, the BBC reports. Police declared it a major incident, and the former spy and his daughter, who were found unconscious on a bench at a shopping mall, are both in critical condition, per The Guardian.
Other Russians have diedin England under suspicious circumstances: In 2006, former KGB officer and whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London. In 2012, whistleblower Alexander Perepilichny died from a toxin while jogging in England.
President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in the Oval Office Monday for the first time since the U.S. officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — and since police recommended Netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges.
Trump's claim that the relationship between the two countries "has never been better" was cheerfully reciprocated by Netanyahu, who said the president is following in the footsteps of Cyrus the Great and Lord Arthur Balfour as a friend of the Jewish people.
An aid convoy reached Eastern Ghouta in Syria Monday, where the Russian-backed Syrian army has killed hundreds of civilians and dropped "almost 20 bombs daily" in recent weeks, Reuters reports. But the Syrian government confiscated some medical supplies from aid workers before they were allowed in to help.
Why it matters: "The United Nations says 400,000 people are trapped inside the besieged enclave, and were already running out of food and medical supplies before the assault began with intense air strikes two weeks ago," per Reuters. [Go deeper:White House accuses Russia of slaughtering civilians in Syria]
A spokesperson the Iranian Armed Forces told Tasmin news agency that Iran’s missile program "will continue non-stop and foreign powers have no right to intervene on this issue," per Reuters. No Iranian official has permission to "discuss this issue with foreigners," he added.
The backdrop: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to demand stricter sanctions against short-range Iranian missiles during a meeting with President Trump today, Axios contributor Barak Ravid reports.
North Korea's Kim Jong-un hosted a welcome dinner for two top aides to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports, quoting Moon's spokesman.
Why it matters: The dinner marks the first time South Korean officials have met Kim since he took power six years ago, and was aimed at probing whether Kim is ready to negotiate the denuclearization of the North as well as restarting dialogue between North Korea and the United States.
A $120 million grant had been allocated to the State Department since late 2016 to combat foreign efforts to sway elections, but the agency has yet to use any of the funds and none of the 23 employees tasked to combat efforts by Russia speak Russian, according to a New York Times report Sunday.
Why it matters: Senior officials including CIA Director Pompeo have said Russia will try to meddle in the midterms, and it's unclear what's being done to stop them. This reports comes the same day an Axios SurveyMonkey poll found a majority of Americans have little to no faith that the government will keep foreign powers out of the elections.
