Nation & World Glance
WASHINGTON — Rapidfire diplomacy played out on two continents Tuesday in advance of an “expected” summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, the strengthening resolve coming after a series of highrisk, high-reward gambits by the two leaders.
Officials won’t say that the June 12 Singapore summit is back on, but preparations on both sides of the Pacific are proceeding as if it is. Two weeks of hard-nosed negotiating, including a communications blackout by the North and a public cancellation by the U.S., appeared to be paying off as the two sides engaged in their most substantive talks to date about the meeting.
Trump tweeted Tuesday that he had a “great team” working on the summit, confirming that top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol was headed to New York for talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In addition, teams of U.S. officials have arrived at the Korean demilitarized zone and in Singapore to prepare for the meeting.
“Solid response to my letter, thank you!” tweeted Trump. He announced he had decided to “terminate” the summit last week in an open letter to Kim that stressed American military might, but also left the door cracked for future communication. White House officials characterized the letter as a negotiating tactic, designed to bring the North back to the table after a provocative statement and a decision to skip planning talks and ignore preparatory phone calls.
But aides almost immediately suggested the meeting could still get back on track. And after a suitably conciliatory statement from North Korea, Trump said the same.
Trump warns Tennessee supporters against being ‘complacent’
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned his supporters against being “complacent” this fall, asking voters to send more Republicans to Congress while crediting Democrats with “sticking together” to oppose his agenda.
Trump traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, as he steps up his efforts to stop Democrats aiming to regain control of the House or Senate — if not both.
“We need Marsha in the Senate to continue the amazing progress and work that we’ve done over the last year and a half,” Trump said of Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who’s running for a Senate seat. “To keep on winning, you have to vote Republican in November.”
Trump also headlined a fundraiser for Blackburn, who is expected to face Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen to replace Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who is retiring. The Tennessee campaign is among several races crucial to Trump’s plans to maintain control of the Senate, where Republicans are defending a narrow two-seat majority.
Trump criticized Bredesen for being backed by national Democrats, including the Senate and House leaders.
Soggy Alberto churns inland, spreading rain widely
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The soggy remnants of Alberto are spreading rain deeper into the nation’s midsection after downing trees, after triggering power outages and scattered flooding around the South.
Forecasters say what’s left of the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is still capable of causing flash flooding, however.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday that as Alberto’s weakening system moves inland Wednesday, it still remains a potential menace. Flash flood watches were in effort for parts of several states from Alabama through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, the Carolinas and Virginia and West Virginia.
In its wake, the large system caused more than 25,000 power outages in Alabama on Tuesday, a day after making landfall on the Florida Panhandle. Many of the outages were caused by trees rooted in soggy soil falling across utility lines. And while forecasters said the subtropical depression could dump several inches (centimeters) of rain inland, few major problems have been reported so far.
“We’ve had a lot of rain, but we got lucky. It was a constant rain but not a heavy rain,” said Regina Myers, emergency management director in Walker County northwest of Birmingham.
Missouri governor resigns amid widening investigations
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a sometimes brash political outsider whose unconventional resume as a Rhodes scholar and Navy SEAL officer made him a rising star in the Republican Party, resigned Tuesday amid a widening investigation that arose from an affair with his former hairdresser.
The 44-year-old governor spent nearly six months fighting to stay in office after the affair became public in January in a television news report that aired immediately following his State of the State address. The probes into his conduct by prosecutors and lawmakers began with allegations stemming from the affair and expanded to include questions about whether he violated campaign-finance laws.
Greitens said his resignation would take effect Friday.
“This ordeal has been designed to cause an incredible amount of strain on my family — millions of dollars of mounting legal bills, endless personal attacks designed to cause maximum damage to family and friends,” he said in a brief statement from his Jefferson City office, his voice breaking at times.
He said he could not “allow those forces to continue to cause pain and difficulty to the people that I love.”
Starbucks closes stores, asks workers to talk about race
NEW YORK — Starbucks, mocked three years ago for suggesting employees discuss racial issues with customers, asked workers Tuesday to talk about race with each other.
It was part of the coffee chain’s anti-bias training, created after the arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks six weeks ago. The chain apologized but also took the dramatic step of closing its stores early for the sessions. But still to be seen is whether the training, developed with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and other groups, will prevent another embarrassing incident.
“This is not science, this is human behavior,” said Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. He called it the first step of many.
The training was personal, asking workers to break into small groups to talk about their experiences with race. According to training materials provided by the company, they were also asked to pair up with a co-worker and list the ways they “are different from each other.” A guidebook reminds people to “listen respectfully” and tells them to stop any conversations that get derailed.
“I found out things about people that I’ve worked with a lot that I didn’t know,” said Carla Ruffin, a New York regional director at Starbucks.
Hawaii lava crosses key highway, destroys utility poles
HONOLULU — Lava crossed a key highway in the mostly rural district of the Big Island where Kilauea volcano was erupting, local authorities in Hawaii said Tuesday.
Highway 132 connects the commercial center of Pahoa with smaller towns and farms in the area.
Hawaii County said lava destroyed the local electric utility’s equipment on the highway, which knocked out power to Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots neighborhoods toward the coast.
Hawaii Electric Light Co. said it was evaluating how to provide power to these communities once the eruption is over but it won’t be able to finalize a plan until the area is stable. The eruption has so far destroyed more than 400 of its utility poles, the company said.
The destruction came after rivers of lava flowed toward the ocean over the weekend, forcing officials to knock on doors and urge residents holding out in two evacuated neighborhoods to flee right away.
LIEGE, Belgium — A knife-wielding prison inmate on a 48-hour leave stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, seized their service weapons and shot them and a bystander to death before being mowed down by a group of officers, setting off a major terror investigation into the country’s most savage assault since 2016 suicide attacks.
Prime Minister Charles Michel acknowledged the assailant, who had a lengthy criminal record that included theft, assault and drug offenses, had appeared in three reports on radicalism but was still allowed to take a leave from prison.
“Is our system working when we see that these kind of people are running free?” asked vice premier Alexander De Croo, echoing the thoughts of many in a nation where armed police and gun-toting soldiers still patrol the streets in the wake of the March 2016 attacks that left 32 people dead at the Brussels airport and subway system. Tuesday’s attack happened outside a cafe in the eastern city of Liege when the assailant crept up on the two female officers from behind and stabbed them repeatedly.
Gaza militants strike Israel, drawing Israeli retaliation
JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants bombarded southern Israel with dozens of rockets and mortar shells Tuesday, while Israeli warplanes struck targets throughout the Gaza Strip in the largest flare-up of violence between the sides since a 2014 war.
The Israeli military said most of the projectiles were intercepted, but three soldiers were wounded, raising the chances of further Israeli retaliation. One mortar shell landed near a kindergarten shortly before it opened. The sudden burst of violence, which stretched past midnight with no signs of slowing, follows weeks of mass Palestinian protests along the Gaza border with Israel.