Wednesday, 24 Apr 2024

North Korea, Jared Kushner, Oceans: Your Friday Briefing

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Good morning.

The U.S. and North Korea disagree on their falling out, how Jared Kushner got his security clearance and details of a peace plan for Afghanistan. Here’s the latest:

What happened at the Trump-Kim summit meeting?

There were contradictory accounts of how President Trump’s summit meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, collapsed with no deal, their personal warmth yielding to hard disagreement.

After the talks were abruptly abandoned, Mr. Trump said he had rejected an offer from Mr. Kim to dismantle some of his nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions. The North disputed this, saying it had asked only for some of the sanctions to be removed.

One expert suggested that there had been inadequate preparation and that both leaders were too confident in their negotiating skills.

What’s next? After such high-level talks fall apart, there are few places to go. North Korea may keep building out its nuclear arsenal, and tensions may rise again. And the failure presents a new setback for President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, whose signature policy vision has been to open up economic cooperation with the North.

Another angle: Democrats and some Republicans criticized Mr. Trump for saying he believed Mr. Kim had no knowledge of the treatment of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died in 2017 after being imprisoned in North Korea. It was part of Mr. Trump’s pattern of taking autocrats at their word.

Trump overruled concerns to give Kushner top-secret clearance

President Trump last year ordered his then-chief of staff John Kelly to grant a top-secret security clearance to his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, according to four people briefed on the matter.

This appears to belie accounts offered by Mr. Trump; by a lawyer for Mr. Kushner; and by Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and Mr. Kushner’s wife. All said that the clearance was granted in accordance with standard procedure. In fact, Mr. Trump overruled concerns about Mr. Kushner raised by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer. Mr. Kelly was so troubled that he documented the president’s order in a memo.

The clearance had been held up in part over questions from the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. about Mr. Kushner’s foreign and business contacts, including those related to Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

In other Washington news: Michael Cohen’s public testimony about Mr. Trump on Wednesday appears to have changed few voters’ minds. But the portrayal of the president by his former consigliere as lying, corrupt and racist will test both parties. It also highlighted the potential legal jeopardy of Allen Weisselberg, Mr. Trump’s long-serving chief financial officer, who is a focus of federal prosecutors in New York.

Under peace plan, U.S. would exit Afghanistan within five years

The Pentagon is offering a plan in peace talks with the Taliban that could include the militants in a Kabul government and would pull all American troops out of Afghanistan over the next three to five years.

The Pentagon plan would task the 8,600 European and other international troops in Afghanistan — who would leave at the same time — with training the Afghan military, while the U.S. shifted to counterterrorism strikes.

Looking ahead: The plan has broad acceptance in Washington and at NATO headquarters in Brussels. But the Taliban strongly oppose letting American counterterrorism troops stay for up to five years, and it is unclear whether the militants’ rank and file would accept even a shorter time frame. Even if the peace talks break down, the U.S. intends to step away from training Afghan forces, putting the painstakingly built military at risk.

Fish populations shrink as oceans warm

Fish stocks are shrinking globally as a result of climate change, putting a key source of food and income for untold millions around the world in jeopardy, according to a new study published in the journal Science.

The amount of seafood humans could sustainably harvest decreased by 4.1 percent from 1930 to 2010, according to the research, which examined 235 fish populations in 38 ecological regions around the globe.

High ocean temperatures can kill off both fish themselves and the sources of food they depend on.

Hardest hit: Fish populations declined by as much as 35 percent in the northeast Atlantic and the Sea of Japan.

Recourse: Guarding against overfishing and improving the overall management of fisheries can help, the researchers said, but slowing or halting climate change would have much broader benefits.

Here’s what else is happening

Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under a cloud after his former justice minister contradicted his assertions that neither he nor his staff acted improperly in trying to settle a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin, a construction and engineering company. The Conservative opposition leader has called for a criminal investigation.

Venezuela: China and Russia vetoed an American resolution in the U.N. Security Council calling for new elections and unhindered distribution of humanitarian aid in the country.

Israel: The attorney general announced plans to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The case would be the culmination of a two-year investigation into Mr. Netanyahu’s dealings with wealthy businessmen, newspaper publishers and others.

France: A high-profile French jihadist, Fabien Clain, was killed by an airstrike in southeastern Syria. He was believed to have recorded the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris.

Ukraine: A popular singer with a cult following was pulled from the song contest show Eurovision after officials questioned her patriotism.

British climber: A mountaineer whose mother was the first woman to summit Mount Everest solo has disappeared with his Italian climbing partner while climbing Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, a peak nicknamed “killer mountain.” They were last heard from on Sunday.

Michael Jackson: A new HBO documentary, “Leaving Neverland,” explores the stories of two men who accuse the pop star of sexually abusing them for years. Our critic Wesley Morris wrestles with their stories and his own Jackson fandom.

Seized pug: When a family of five in Germany fell behind on bills, a debt collector took their prized puppy, Edna, and sold it on eBay. The city government called it a “pragmatic solution.”

A day at The Times: Fifty years ago, “A Day in the Life of The New York Times,” a 230-page book, chronicled 24 hours at the Gray Lady. The anniversary inspired us to take look at how we operate today, drawing on editors and reporters around the world to give you a detailed look at how our report comes together.

Smarter Living

Tips for a more fulfilling life.

Recipe of the day: Cauliflower gets the Philippine adobo treatment in this vegetarian dish.

When you’re cleaning out your closet, selling, donating or recycling the old clothes is better for the environment than tossing them.

How to keep feeling fresh on long, strenuous travel days.

Back Story

Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was born 115 years ago Saturday.

He had a unique take on the English language. His inventive use of rhythm and rhyme is at once ridiculous and intoxicating to children and parents alike.

His titles have sold a staggering 650 million copies in more than 45 languages — including Latin, Hebrew and Catalan — and are available in 110 countries.

This global expansion came with a tricky obstacle: how to translate him.

“The challenge is staying true to the original books while being sensitive to the local market,” says Susan Brandt, the president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. “And not lose the magic.”

The solution? Hire local poets to work with translators. That’s how “Snuvs” from “Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!” became “lhufas” in Portuguese, and “Hakken-Kraks’” from “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” became “Scracchi Stridenti” in Italian.

And as for Sam I Am? In Spanish, he’s Juan Ramón, and he’s obsessed with huevos verdes con jamón.

Karen Thorne, a content strategist, wrote today’s Back Story.

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Melina Delkic is a senior staff editor. @MelinaDelkic

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