Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, who plays president of Ukraine in a television series, has won the first round of Ukraine's presidential elections with about 30% of the vote, according to an exit poll cited by the BBC.
The big picture: Zelensky will face off against incumbentPetro Poroshenko in a runoff, since neither candidate received a majority.This Ukraine's first presidential election without a clear pro-Kremlin candidate, reflecting a shift for a country that has been increasingly drawn toward the West since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that the Mueller investigation cleared President Trump on the question of whether his campaign conspired with Russia in the 2016 election, and that it's up to voters to decide whether the campaign's various contacts with Russians were "unethical or "immoral."
Ukraine heads to the polls on Sunday for the first round of its presidential election, a turning point vote for a nation long under the shadow of — and in open conflict with — Russia.
Why it matters: Ukrainians "want to be part of the West. They want to build a functioning democracy that guarantees their prosperity," says Daniel Twining, the president of the International Republican Institute, who spoke to Axios from Kiev.
North Korea said Sunday it's watching closely rumors the FBI played a role in what it called a "grave terrorist attack" at its embassy in Madrid, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.
Details: North Korea expects Spain to investigate last month's embassy incident, KCNA reports. A Spanish judge investigating what he called an armed break-in at the embassy said this week the U.S.-based alleged gang leader contacted the FBI days afterward to offer data stolen in the raid.
