• 'Gradual denuclearization': US envoy for North Korea heads to Vietnam for pre-summit talks
• Russia will ask UN to lift some North Korea sanctions - Unsurprisingly the US isn't happy
• Geologists from China say North Korea's nuclear test site likely collapsed

Kim purportedly offered to dismantle a nuclear facility at Yongbyon in exchange for sanctions relief, but Washington demanded more comprehensive denuclearization that included multiple nuclear development-related sites. The two-day summit was aborted early after Kim and Trump failed to make headway on the contentious issue.

I actually called him just recently to say hey, you know, whatever you can do on this. But he's been very helpful at the border, and he's been very, very helpful, I think, with North Korea generally. Could he be a little more helpful? Probably, but but he's been very helpful.

"He said the testing will not start," Trump said of Kim. "He said he's not going to do testing of rockets or missiles or anything having to do with nuclear. And all I can tell is that's what he said, and we'll see."

"I gave that up quite a while ago because it costs us $100 million every time we do it. We fly these massive bombers in from Guam," Trump said.

"Exercising is fun and it's nice they play their war games - and I'm not saying it's not necessary, because on some levels it is - but on other levels it's not. But it's a very, very expensive thing."

"We didn't get to something that ultimately made sense for the United States of America. I think Chairman Kim was hopeful that we would [reach an agreement]. We asked him to do more. He was unprepared to do that, but I'm still optimistic"

• Jacline Mouraud, self-appointed spokeswoman of Yellow Vests, seeks to create political party of 'common sense'
• C'est pas moi: Macron blames social media and the Russians for the Yellow Vest protests
• The Yellow Vests' bold movement is causing the French ruling class to lose their mind
• Yellow Vest spokesman hints at next stage: 'Paramilitaries are ready to overthrow the government'

MP salaries through the years

April 2010​ - ​£65,738
April 2011 - £65,738
April 2012 - £65,738
​April 2013 - ​£66,396
​April 2014 - ​£67,060
​May 2015 - ​£74,000 [It's notable that this was the year the Conservative party won the majority and came into power]
​April 2016 - ​£74,962
April 2017 - £76,011
April 2018 - £77,379

• Shameless: UK MPs to get another pay rise taking the total to £11,000 in just 3 years
• British children living in poverty "rising continuously since 2011"
• UK's poverty wages, extortionate rents and austerity: Homeless families who work soars 73% in 5 years
• Income stagnation and rising poverty: Millions of UK families earning less than 15 years ago
• Record 60% of Britons in poverty are in working families - study
• UK: Fifth of workers still earning below 'real' living wage

Trump consigliere turned federal informant Michael Cohen shared his fear that there will "never be a peaceful transition of power" if his former boss loses the 2020 election during a congressional hearing some called a 'circus.'

"You don't know him! I do!" Cohen insisted...before predicting Trump would refuse to step down even if he was defeated in 2020. "He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat," declared Cohen, who pleaded guilty to charges he lied to Congress. Cohen failed to deliver anything tangible to the salivating Democrats on the committee, admitting he had no "real examples" of collusion and instead filling his time on the stand with public displays of repentance over his ten years of service to Trump.

"Everybody's job at the Trump organization is to protect Mr. Trump. Every day most of us knew we were coming in and we were going to lie for him on something. And that became the norm, and that's what's happening right now in this country," Cohen intoned. "This destruction of our civility to one another is just out of control."

"This is the same Michael Cohen who has admitted that he lied to Congress previously," Trump campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany pointed out. "Why did they even bother to swear him in this time?"

Trump has accused Cohen of "lying in order to reduce his prison time" and has previously called his former lawyer - who rejoined the Democratic Party in October - a "rat" and a "weak person." Those hurt by Cohen's turncoating shouldn't have been surprised, however: the now-disbarred lawyer revealed he only joined the GOP after former Republican National Committee chair Steve Wynn learned he was a Democrat, while he was serving as vice chairman of the RNC's Finance Committee.

The congressional hearing, which coincided with Trump's Hanoi summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was originally scheduled for earlier this month but postponed because of "ongoing threats" against Cohen's family, according to his lawyer, Democrat operative Lanny Davis.

Cohen is due to report to federal prison to begin his three-year sentence on March 6. He was disbarred earlier this week.

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was hit with a criminal referral for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).

Meadows pressed Cohen over his apparent failure to list contracts with foreign companies that paid him for access to the Trump administration, including Novartis, which paid Cohen $1.2 million to act as a consultant on the Trump administration, as well as $150,000 from South Korea's Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and a payment from Kazakhstan BTA bank.

Shortly after the exchange, Meadows tweeted: "I just entered a referral for criminal investigation of Michael Cohen, who violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act by illegally lobbying on behalf of foreign entities without registering," adding "Cohen talks about "blind loyalty." His real blind loyalty? It's to the almighty dollar."

• Cohen hearings designed to keep public in dark about Russia
• BuzzFeed 'reports' Trump "personally instructed" Cohen to lie to Congress about Moscow project - UDATE: Buzzfeed story completely discredited
• Boom! Candace Owens drops bomb - Michael Cohen approached her to lie about 'racist Trump'
• Cohen leaks to NYT: Will call Trump "racist", "con man" and "cheat" in Wednesday testimony - not a peep about 'Russian collusion'

The March 31 vote was supposed to be a battle between two of Ukraine's most experienced politicians: incumbent Petro Poroshenko and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. But around 20 percent of Ukrainians now say they plan to vote for comedian and film actor Zelensky, putting him several points ahead of his main rivals in opinion polls last week.

The 41-year-old entertainer has tapped into popular discontent with the political class and has largely relied on the internet to get his message across. To some, his approach is reminiscent of the populist strategies that swept US President Donald Trump to power.

Supporters, however, see him as an alternative to an old guard that they say has never been able to follow through on promises to tackle corruption and improve living standards.

Poroshenko came to power in 2014 on the back of a pro-Europe, anti-graft popular uprising, while Tymoshenko was a face of the Orange Revolution that promised a new, fairer Ukraine -- in 2004.

"Zelensky is seen as a 'none of the above' candidate. Also he's fresh, he's modern, he's young, he's trendy," political analyst Vadym Karasyov told AFP. "People are tired of (old) ideas and the usual politicians."

But Karasyov said there was a difference between using the actor's candidacy to protest against the political elite, and actually wanting him to take charge of the country. Despite Zelensky's leading position in polls some experts say his bid remains a long shot because many of his supporters are young and will not bother turning out on election day.

There are also a record number of candidates in the race, adding to the vote's unpredictability.

Foreign diplomats have privately raised questions about his candidacy. "He was too general -- no concrete ideas. It was frightening if you consider that he is a presidential candidate," a Western diplomatic source told AFP following a meeting with Zelensky. "He lacks knowledge, but is very keen to learn," said reformist MP Sergiy Leshchenko, who also attended another briefing.

Like the other frontrunners, Zelensky says he wants the country to maintain a pro-Western trajectory.

Zelensky comes from the industrial city of Krivy Rig in central Ukraine. A father-of-two, he has a law degree but made his career on stage. He is artistic director of a studio theatre called Kvartal 95, reportedly part of a business conglomerate that has had business dealings in Russia.

• Corbyn to May: Back Labour's deal and option of 2nd referendum to break Brexit deadlock
• Theresa May to suggest delaying Brexit if her own deal and 'no-deal' gets rejected by MPs
• No surprise: Theresa May's Tory govt warned 'UK won't leave EU on March 29'

"Yongbyon is the heart of North Korea's nuclear program," Hecker said, explaining that completely dismantling the reactor there would be critical and would mean North Korea would never be able to make plutonium there again.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration is hoping to get a significant concession from North Korea on Yongbyon, but it's unclear if the U.S. can offer something in exchange that Kim would accept. North Korea wants sanctions relief, and U.S. officials have advised the president against taking such a step at this stage in negotiations. North Korea has offered to freeze activity at Yongbyon in past rounds of negotiations with previous U.S. administrations.

Current and former U.S. officials note that North Korea has other sites with similar capabilities, however, and they are raising concerns that Pyongyang won't negotiate on all aspects of its weapons programs if it's not forced to disclose them.

In recent months researchers have discovered that North Korea has as many as 20 undisclosed ballistic missile sites, according to Beyond Parallel, a project sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a defense think tank. One of the sites is the Sino-ri Missile Base about 130 miles north of the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea, where about 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed.

North Korea hasn't launched a missile test since engaging diplomatically with the U.S. last year, but it has continued to otherwise refine and advance its nuclear weapons program in the months since Trump first met with Kim last June in Singapore, U.S. officials have said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had been leading negotiations until he named a special envoy to focus on the effort, has grown increasingly concerned about the prospects of reaching a deal with North Korea that gets rid of its nuclear threat, current and former senior U.S. officials said.

Update 3: In what might be the first hint about how the Hanoi summit's failure could impact trade talks, the editor of an English-language Communist Party mouthpiece insinuated in a tweet that Beijing is unhappy with the US's negotiating tactics, and that Trump should have "serious talks" about lifting sanctions in exchange for partial denuclearization.

In other words, if Beijing believes the US should meet Pyongyang half way, what are the chances that President Xi will have an abrupt change of heart about the US's negotiating position in the trade talks?

* * *

Update 2: During a midnight news conference that was ostensibly intended as a debriefing (but, given the timing, clearly motivated by the North's desire to undermine President Trump), North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho contradicted Trump's narrative about what prompted him to abruptly walk away from the talks in Vietnam.

According to Ri, the North offered a "realistic proposal": In exchange for partial sanctions relief (Trump claimed that Kim had demanded "all sanctions lifted in their entirety" presumably including both US and UN sanctions). Namely, that Kim had proposed the dismantling of its plutonium and uranium processing facilities at Yongbyon in the presence of US experts, in exchange for partial relief.

Ri insisted that the North's position would "never change," though he noted that the US had proposed another round of talks in the future.

In another blow to Trump, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said he suspected that Kim may have "lost the will" to continue negotiating with the US.

• *I HAVE A FEELING KIM MAY HAVE 'LOST THE WILL': N. KOREA'S CHOE
• *NORTH KOREA SAYS U.S. 'MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY' IN HANOI TALKS
• *N.KOREA SAYS ITS DENUCLEARIZATION/SANCTIONS STANCE WON'T CHANGE
• *N. KOREA SAYS U.S. INSISTED ON STEPS BEYOND N. KOREA'S PROPOSAL
• *N.KOREA OFFERED PARTIAL DENUKE STEPS FOR SOME SANCTIONS RELIEF

We imagine Trump won't allow this embarrassing contradiction from a leader with whom he said he "fell in love" after their first round of talks (largely due to Kim's "beautiful letters") to go unchallenged.

* * *

Update: As analysts try to parse what the summit chaos in Vietnam means for US-China trade talks, Beijing has chimed in to offer some clues of its own.

In a statement that mirrored what President Xi said about a US-China deal, Beijing said the US and North Korea must "meet each other half way" on a nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, some have proposed that the collapse of the summit could strengthen Beijing's hand in the trade talks, as Trump might feel pressured to go easy on China to try and win a deal with North Korea.

* * *

Even arm chair observers probably understood long before the Hanoi summit had even been scheduled that the gulf between the American and North Korean positions on denuclearization was probably too wide to overcome (after nearly a year of talks, the two sides are no closer to a deal). Yet, President Trump had apparently hoped that the pomp and circumstance of another historic summit would soften Kim Jong Un up. But despite all the talk about North Korea being "ready to denuclearize" and both leaders hyping up the possibility that a deal would be struck, alas, no deal was forthcoming, and Trump is now headed back to Washington empty handed.

Talks between the two world leaders broke down Thursday afternoon as President Trump abruptly walked away from the table and canceled a planned lunch and signing ceremony (it's still not clear what the two leaders had hoped to sign, though scheduling the ceremony before a deal had been struck did seem risky). With the talks in disarray, Trump moved up a news conference where he and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took questions from the press.

Trump told reporters that he had asked Kim to commit to full denuclearization before the US agreed to sanctions relief, and that "he was unprepared to do that."

Trump told reporters that the talks collapsed after the North refused to yield from its demand that the US completely remove all of the U.S.-led international sanctions - including the sanctions approved by the UN security council - in exchange for the shuttering of the North's Yongbyon nuclear facility. Trump and Pompeo refused to make a deal without the North committing to giving up its secretive nuclear facilities outside Yongbyon, as well as its missile and warheads.

According to Trump, the talks ended amicably enough, with a commitment to keep the talks alive, and Kim also promised that he would not resume nuclear and missile tests - the basis for the detente between the two countries - and Trump said he would take Kim at his word.

Trump added that he'd "much rather do it right than do it fast."

"It was about the sanctions," Trump said. "Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn't do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn't give up all of the sanctions for that."

"I'd much rather do it right than do it fast," Trump added, echoing his remarks from earlier in the day, when he insisted that "speed" was not important. "We're in position to do something very special."

Full press conference: