CONSERVATIVES WIN STATE ELECTION IN GERMANY
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives won a state election Sunday in their center-left rivals’ traditional heartland, a stinging blow to the German leader’s challenger in September’s national vote.
The western state of North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany’s most populous and has been led by the center-left Social Democrats for all but five years since 1966.
It also is the home state of Martin Schulz, the Social Democratic challenger seeking to deny Merkel a fourth term in the Sept. 24 national election.
REPORT: TRUMP MAY SHAKE UP WHITE HOUSE STAFF
President Trump has reportedly considered replacing White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and has raised a Fox News host as a possible spokesperson.
Six West Wing officials told The New York Times that the president is considering the most far-reaching shake-up of his first term after being dissatisfied with top aides, especially Spicer.
Trump has discussed Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle as a possible press secretary, according to the Times, which noted that the president also has spent several hours with Spicer this week praising his TV ratings during briefings.
The Times reported that Trump also has grown “increasingly dissatisfied” with the performance of his chief of staff Reince Priebus and communications director Michael Dubke.
JOURNALISTS ROUGHED UP ON MEXICAN HIGHWAY
About 100 armed men attacked a group of journalists and robbed them of their equipment in Mexico’s troubled southern state of Guerrero, authorities and media reports said Sunday.
The newspaper La Jornada said two of its employees were among seven journalists accosted while covering a security operation in San Miguel Totolapan on Saturday.
They were traveling in two SUVs when they were intercepted by the gunmen and relieved of cameras, cellphones, personal effects and one of the vehicles.
The attackers roughed up some of the journalists and threatened to burn them and the SUVs before letting them leave, La Jornada reported.
Mexico is one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists, with at least 40 killed since 1992 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
North Korea’s missile test on Sunday highlights the country’s frantic efforts to accelerate its nuclear weapons program while political uncertainty has gripped the United States and South Korea, analysts said.
“They see an opportunity to race ahead and get as much nuclear weapons capability in place as possible,” David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said Sunday.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency claimed the missile was a “new ground-toground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket” that’s “capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead.”
The missile test comes only days after a new president, Moon Jae-in, assumed the presidency of South Korea. It is the seventh missile launch this year as a new administration establishes itself in Washington.
Moon expressed “deep regret” over the North’s missile, which flew for about 30 minutes before dropping into the Sea of Japan.
The White House also criticized the launch. “North Korea has been a flagrant menace for far too long,” the White House said in a statement. “The United States maintains our ironclad commitment to stand with our allies in the face of the serious threat posed by North Korea.”
It’s not unusual for a new administration in Washington to be tested by foreign rivals in the early months of the presidency. Trump has been forced to deal with a string of provocative actions from North Korea.
The administration has vacillated somewhat in its message toward North Korea as it has attempted to build international Here’s a time line on North Korea’s missile tests in 2017: The North conducts a successful launch of the new Pukguksong-2 intermediate range missile that travels 310 miles. Four medium-range missiles were launched from a test site near North Korea’s border with China. Some flew about 620 miles, landing about 185 miles off the coast of Japan. A mobile launched missile exploded seconds after launching. A KN-17 missile was launched but landed in the Sea of Japan after traveling only 34 miles. Another missile explodes shortly after its launch. A KN-17 missile traveled 21 miles, breaking up in midair. North Korea launches a missile that flies for 30 minutes and 435 miles, reaching an unusually high altitude of about 1,200 miles, before landing in the Sea of Japan. momentum for dealing with the rogue nation. Trump has said he would be “honored” to meet with Kim Jong Un, the unstable leader of North Korea, under the “right circumstances.”
The administration also has threatened to take action to halt North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons program.
The Trump administration’s efforts were further complicated with the election of Moon, who had called for dialogue with the North and wants to avoid confrontation. Moon’s administration is the first liberal government in South Korea in almost a decade.
“The challenge for the Trump administration is how do you get momentum to clamp down right away,” Albright said.
The Trump administration has said pressure from China, a key trading partner with North Korea, is key to getting Kim to back off his country’s nuclear program. But China may be able to use Moon’s call for reconciliation as an excuse for not confronting Kim, Albright said.
North Korea has ramped up its nuclear activity since the inauguration of Trump.
Only weeks after he was inaugurated, North Korea launched a previously unknown missile. Shortly after that North Korean agents allegedly killed Kim Jong Un’s half brother in Malaysia.
The Trump administration has responded with warnings and has taken actions designed to warn North Korea not to test the new administration’s patience.
In March, the United States delivered its THAAD missile-defense system to South Korea, despite China’s strong objections. Last month a U.S. carrier battle group arrived in Korean waters.
The north’s continuous missile tests are not only a symbolic act of defiance. The tests are critical steps in the country’s efforts to build a missile capable of targeting the United States.
“The only way to develop a missile is to test it,” Albright said. Any progress in the program is deeply worrying for the United States and its allies.