Thursday 26 April 2018

Thursday Morning Briefing: The tricky path to understanding Kim Jong Un

North Korea

U.S. intelligence experts are trying to build a profile of Kim Jong Un to give Trump a competitive edge in one of the most consequential summits since the Cold War, but they face a huge challenge – figuring out a secretive North Korean ruler few people know much about.

 

South Korea's Moon to meet #NorthKorea leader Kim at border for summit on Friday https://reut.rs/2JrMEaU

6:50 AM - Apr 26, 2018

North Korea’s pledge to dismantle its Punggye-ri nuclear test site sounds like a big step forward but verifying whether that will actually happen will be difficult, underlining the complexities of any deal it may strike with the United States.

Read more with our North Korea Revealed page.

top stories on reuters.com

Last April, a Maltese journalist published stories saying a private bank on her island was serving high-ranking customers in Azerbaijan, and alleging it was processing corrupt payments. Six months later the journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was murdered. While many of her claims remain unproven, one has held up: The bank, called Pilatus Bank, did depend for much of its business on the Azeri elite.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared poised to hand Trump a huge legal victory, signaling yesterday it was likely to uphold his contentious travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.

U.S. oil major Chevron has evacuated executives from Venezuela after two of its workers were imprisoned over a contract dispute with state-owned oil company PDVSA, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

 

Detained in Myanmar: Follow updates on two @Reuters reporters held in government custody https://reut.rs/2HodXX5

9:06 PM - Apr 26, 2018

world

Reuters Pictures follows a procession through the mountain town of Mae Hong Son on Thailand's northern border, a rite of passage to initiate boys as Buddhist novices.

Scientists have uncovered evidence of ancient humans engaged in a deadly face-off with a giant sloth, showing for the first time how our ancestors might have tackled such a formidable prey.

commentary

Why Brexit Britain should look to Turkey

British parliamentarians will vote today on whether Brexit negotiators should aim for a customs union with the EU. And although Theresa May's government wants a "Canada plus plus plus" version of Ottawa's free-trade arrangement, it would do better to follow Turkey's agreement, writes Paul Wallace.

8 Min Read

Trump's Iran revisionism won't help with North Korea

Donald Trump's revisionist history on the Iran nuclear deal may come back to haunt him in talks with North Korea, writes David E. Wade, former chief of staff at the U.S. State Department. The president is "wrong about the effectiveness of the nuclear agreement, and wrong about the reasons why the deal between Iran and the world’s major powers was confined to the nuclear issue."

6 min read

reuters tv

Facebook delivers big earnings despite the challenges

WhatsApp to ban under-16s in Europe

 

Funding falls well short at the Syria donor conference with the U.S. failing to pledge. It comes as aid agencies warn of a cruel end-game in rebel controlled Idlib home to over 2 million people. https://reut.rs/2FjrFVd

11:02 AM - Apr 26, 2018