Officials: No more conditions imposed for NKorea talks
Trump administration officials said Sunday there will be no more conditions imposed on North Korea before a first-ever meeting of the two nation’s leaders beyond the North’s promise not to resume nuclear testing and missile flights or publicly criticize U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
The officials’ comments followed the surprise announcement last week that President Donald Trump has agreed to meet the North’s Kim Jong Un by May.
“This potential meeting has been agreed to, there are no additional conditions being stipulated, but, again they — they cannot engage in missile testing, they cannot engage in nuclear testing and they can’t publicly object to the U.S.-South Korea planned military exercises,” deputy White House spokesman Raj Shah said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the summit would give Trump a chance “to sit down and see if he can cut a deal” with Kim over the North’s nuclear program.
“The president has been very clear in what the objective is here. And that is to get rid of nuclear weapons on the (Korean) peninsula,” Mnuchin said.
The administration officials credited toughened economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations, and pushed by the United States, with helping bring Kim to the brink of negotiations.
Historic vote in China could let Xi rule for life
BEIJING (AP) — Xi Jinping, already China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, received a vastly expanded mandate Sunday as lawmakers abolished presidential term limits that have been in place for more than 35 years and wrote his political philosophy into the country’s constitution.
In one swift vote, the rubber-stamp legislature opened up the possibility of Xi serving as president for life, returning China to the one-man-rule system that prevailed during the era of Mao and the emperors who came before him.
The package of constitutional amendments passed the nearly 3,000-member National People’s Congress almost unanimously, with just two opposing votes and three abstentions. The vote further underscored the total dominance of Chinese politics possessed by the 64-year-old Xi, who serves simultaneously as the head of state, leader of the ruling Communist Party and commander of the powerful 1 million-member armed forces.
The move upends a system enacted by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to prevent a return to the bloody excesses of a lifelong dictatorship typified by Mao’s chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
“This marks the biggest regression in China’s legal system since the reform and opening-up era of the 1980s,” said Zhang Lifan, an independent Beijing-based political commentator.
Le Pen wants French far-right party renamed National Rally
LILLE, France (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen proposed renaming the National Front party co-founded by her father 46 years ago to National Rally, opening a new era after her resounding defeat in last year’s presidential race.
Le Pen’s proposal culminated her closing speech at the party’s two-day congress in Lille, the capital of the National Front’s northern heartland.
The name National Rally must be approved by party members in a mail vote and it’s not clear whether they will accept the change.
In another decisive change, the party severed the final ties to firebrand founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, 89, by eliminating his title of honorary president-for-life. He was barred from attending the congress.
The moves were part of a makeover designed to revive the nationalist party’s fortunes after Marine Le Pen’s resounding loss in last year’s presidential election to Emmanuel Macron.
After her defeat, Le Pen had promised a “re-foundation” of the party. New faces appeared within the leadership and new bylaws were voted on. But the party’s foundation, notably its anti-immigration agenda, remained intact.