Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe begins two days of meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran on Wednesday — seeking "a frank exchange of views" and following up on a proposal to mediate for the U.S. that President Trump cautiously welcomed in May.
Protesters in Hong Kong braved pepper spray and rubber bullets to successfully delay debate on a controversial bill that would expose Hongkongers to extradition to mainland China.
Why it matters: A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 but retained a high degree of autonomy — including the freedom to protest and an independent judiciary. Hong Kong residents worry that’s all crumbling as the Chinese Communist Party tightens its grip.
President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn has hired Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor, as his new counsel, Powell confirmed in a statement to Axios. The Hill first reported Powell was joining Flynn's legal team.
The backdrop: A court filing released last week revealed that Flynn had fired his attorneys, Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony, who cut Flynn's plea deal with Robert Mueller in 2017. A source familiar with the matter told Axios Flynn fired them because he felt they had not pushed aggressively enough to get exculpatory evidence during the plea negotiations.
Demonstrators protesting a proposed extradition bill have been clashing with Hong Kong police, fending off rubber bullets, tear gas and high-pressure water hoses well into Wednesday night, AP and Reuters report.
What's new: As of 10 p.m. local time, the Hong Kong government has confirmed 72 injuries, including 21 police officers, BBC reports.
President Trump responded Tuesday to a Wall Street Journal report that Kim Jong-un's late half brother was a CIA source who met with agency operatives, saying that such an arrangement wouldn't have occurred under his administration.
"I saw the information about the CIA with respect to his brother or half-brother, and I would tell him that would not happen under my auspices. ... I would not let that happen under my auspices."
The big picture: Kim Jong-nam met a potential CIA contact in Malaysia in February 2017 — during Trump's presidency — according to the WSJ. On that trip, he was murdered by the North Korean government with a nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur's airport, according to the U.S. and South Korea, though North Korea denies the allegations.
A new report from the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), which includes interviews from 610 escapees, unearths fresh details on how North Korea executes its citizens.
By the numbers: TJWG found 318 reports of public execution sites in North Korea over the last 4 years. There were 19 reports of "public executions of more than 10 people at once." Almost all of the reported state-sanctioned killings were public executions by firing squad.
A Russian investigative journalist whose arrest on dubious drug charges was widely condemned — including on the front pages of three of Russia's biggest newspapers — will be cleared of all charges, according to his news outlet, Meduza.
Why it matters: This is a stunning reversal. The journalist, Ivan Golunov, was almost certainly targeted because of his work, and almost certainly freed because of the furious backlash — which extended even to state media. The police responsible for the arrest have reportedly been suspended, and the Kremlin has admitted mistakes were made.
North Korea said the U.S. must "withdraw its hostile policy" toward Pyongyang or agreements reached at the landmark Singapore summit may become "a blank sheet of paper," Reuters reported Tuesday, citing state media.
Why it matters: President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's Hanoi summit in February collapsed over denuclearization and sanctions relief issues. Now, Pyongyang says the joint statement Trump and Kim signed in Singapore on June 12, 2018, is "in danger" because it says the U.S. is "turning a blind eye to its implementation" with an "arrogant and unilateral U.S. policy" that it says "will never work,"per Reuters.
