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‘I’ll do whatever it takes’: Kate McCann tells of heartache ahead of Madeleine McCann’s birthday

‘A new normality’, Kate and GerryMcCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal ten years ago, are seen during an interview with the BBC. Picture: AFP

DEFIANT Kate McCann has said her hope of finding missing daughter Madeleine alive will never fade — as she vowed to still buy her a present for her 14th birthday.

The brave mum has poured her heart out in an interview to mark the agonising ten-year anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance in Praia da Luz in Portugal.

Heartbroken Kate revealed she still buys birthday and Christmas presents for Maddie, which she keeps in her pink bedroom in the hope her daughter will one day be back to open them.

And she admitted she is going to buy Maddie a present for her 14th birthday on May 12, The Sun reports.

She said: “I think about what age she is and that, whenever we find her, will it still be appropriate so there’s a lot of thought goes into it.”

Although the former GP has moved on in her career to another area of medicine and has devoted her time to raising 12-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, she said the “trauma and upset” never fades.

She explained: “My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago.”

Kate, 49, added: “We never thought we’d be in this situation so far along the line.”

The heartbroken mum refers to the milestone date on Wednesday as “a horrible marker of stolen time” because we “should have been a family of five for all that time”.

Madeleine McCann went missing in May 2007. Picture: APSource:AP

Husband Gerry, 48, a renowned heart doctor, said it was “devastating” not to have found his daughter, who would now be aged 13, after she vanished from a holiday apartment in May 2007.

The couple were dining with pals at the time in a nearby tapas restaurant.

Gerry said: “We really threw ourselves into trying to do everything we could to help find her.

“It looks like that hasn’t worked yet.”

But he insisted: “We’re still looking forward, I think that’s the most important thing, we still hope.”

Kate said the family kept a busy life as a way of a coping mechanism and admitted: “Sometimes it’s almost a little bit too frenetic but it keeps us going.”

Gerry McCann said the past decade has been ‘devastating’. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

In a BBC TV interview to air in the UK today, the mum added: “People say you don’t realise how strong you are until you have no option and I think that’s very true.

“Some of that is subconscious I think.

“Your mind and body just take over to a certain extent.

“But if you can’t change something immediately you have to go with it and do the best that you can.”

Gerry told how life over the past five years had taken on “a new normality really”, and said that since the Met Police came on board six years ago it has “taken a huge pressure off us, individually and as a family.”

He added: “After the initial Portuguese investigation closed, essentially, no-one, no-one else was actually doing anything proactively to try and find Madeleine.

“And I think every parent could understand that what you want and what we have aspired to is to have all the reasonable lines of inquiry followed to a logical conclusion.”

The Met Police said this week they are still pursuing “critical” leads to trace her kidnappers — but admitted they have no evidence as to whether she is alive or dead.

How Trump Has Reshaped the Presidency, and How It’s Changed Him, Too

President Trump boarding Air Force One in Maryland on Friday. The president operating on Day 100 is not the same as the one who took office in January.

As Washington evaluates the first 100 days of Mr. Trump tenure, the one consensus is that, for better or worse, the capital has headed deep into uncharted territory.

WASHINGTON — In his first 100 days in power, President Trump has transformed the nation’s highest office in ways both profound and mundane, pushing traditional boundaries, ignoring longstanding protocol and discarding historical precedents as he reshapes the White House in his own image.

But just as Mr. Trump has changed the presidency, advisers and analysts say it has also changed him. Still a mercurial and easily offended provocateur capable of head-spinning gyrations in policy and politics, Mr. Trump nonetheless at times has adapted his approach to both the job and the momentous challenges it entails.

As Washington pauses to evaluate the opening phase of the Trump presidency, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that, for better or worse, the capital has headed deep into uncharted territory. On almost every one of these first 100 days, Mr. Trump has done or said something that caused presidential historians and seasoned professionals inside the Beltway to use the phrase “never before.”

He has assumed even more power for the presidency, expanding President Barack Obama’s use of executive orders to offset the inability to pass major legislation and making it more independent of the Washington establishment. He has been more aggressive than any other president in using his authority to undo his predecessor’s legacy, particularly on trade, business regulation and the environment. And he has dominated the national conversation perhaps more thoroughly than any president in a generation.

At the same time, he has cast off conventions that constrained others in his office. He has retained his business interests, which he implicitly cultivates with regular visits to his properties. He has been both more and less transparent than other presidents, shielding his tax returns and White House visitor logs from public scrutiny while appearing to leave few thoughts unexpressed, no matter how incendiary or inaccurate. And he has turned the White House into a family-run enterprise featuring reality-show-style, “who will be thrown off the island?” intrigue.

“His first 100 days is a reflection of how much the presidency has changed,” said Janet Mullins Grissom, a top official in President George Bush’s White House and State Department. “The biggest difference between President Trump and his predecessors is that he is the first president in my political lifetime who comes to the office unbeholden to any special interest for his electoral success, thus immune to typical political pressures.”

In effect, she said, that compensates for a victory he secured in the Electoral College without winning the popular vote. “That gives him as much leverage as someone who won with landslide numbers — and the freedom to govern his way,” she said. “And his voters love him for it.”

Where Washington veterans fret about deviations from past norms, Mr. Trump’s supporters see a president willing to shake things up. Where Washington cares about decorum and process, they want a president fighting for them against entrenched powers.

Yet the crockery-breaking leader has shown signs of evolving. The president operating on Day 100 is not the same as the one who took office in January, when he was determined to make nice with Russia, make trouble for China and make war on elites.

By his own account, Mr. Trump has discovered how much more complicated issues like health care and North Korea are than he realized, and he has cast off some of his most radical campaign promises after learning more about the issues.

“I’m more inclined to say the presidency has changed Trump rather than Trump changed the presidency,” said H.W. Brands, a University of Texas professor who has written biographies of multiple presidents, including Ronald Reagan and both Roosevelts. “He has moderated or reversed himself on most of the positions he took as a candidate. Reality has set in, as it does with every new president.”

All the more so for the first president in American history who had never spent a day in government or the military, and surrounded himself with top advisers who had not either. Although Mr. Trump assumed that his experience in business and entertainment would translate to the White House, he has found out otherwise.

“I never realized how big it was,” he said of the presidency in an interview with The Associated Press. “Every decision,” he added, “is much harder than you’d normally make.”

In a separate interview with Reuters, he said: “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

Mr. Trump arrived at the White House unimpressed by conventions that governed the presidency. At first, he blew off the idea of receiving intelligence briefings every day because he was “a smart person” and did not need to hear “the same thing every day.” He telephoned foreign leaders during the transition without consulting or even informing government experts on those countries.

He badgered specific companies on Twitter about moving jobs overseas and called in the chief executive of Lockheed Martin to complain about the cost of the F-35 fighter jet, never mind that presidents typically do not involve themselves in the affairs of individual companies or directly negotiate federal contracts.

Mr. Trump likewise has gleefully taken credit on days that stocks have risen and publicly commented on the strength of the dollar, which presidents generally do not do either, both because it might be viewed as unseemly interference in the markets and because it invites blame when they have a bad day.

His boastfulness knows few bounds. “I truly believe that the first 100 days of my administration has been just about the most successful in our country’s history,” he said in his weekly address on Friday.

His Twitter account, of course, has been the vehicle for all sorts of outbursts that defy tradition, often fueled by the latest segment on Fox News. Presidents rarely taunt reality-show hosts about poor ratings, complain about late-night television comedy skits, berate judges or members of their own party who defy them, trash talk Hollywood stars and Sweden, declare the “fake news” media to be “the enemy of the American people” or accuse the last president of illegally wiretapping them without any proof.

David Gergen, a White House aide to four presidents, including Reagan, noted that Franklin D. Roosevelt talked about the “moral leadership” of the presidency. “Unfortunately, we have lost sight of that vision in recent years, and it has almost disappeared during the first 100 days of the Trump administration,” Mr. Gergen said.

Another change to the presidency involves Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns — a practice of presidents for 40 years — and his continued ownership of a vast business empire that includes properties both overseas and blocks from the White House. “He has overstepped the ethics limits that have bound all other presidents for decades,” said Norman L. Eisen, a chief White House ethics adviser under Mr. Obama.

Beyond that, Mr. Trump has been slow to create a structure like those in past administrations. Orders and memos have not always been reviewed by all relevant officials. Meetings are not always attended by key aides who are leery of leaving the president’s side. “The notion of a chain of command is gone,” said David F. Gordon, the State Department director of policy planning under President George W. Bush.

But if the presidency had grown somewhat stale under the old norms as its occupants increasingly stuck to carefully crafted talking points and avoided spontaneity, Mr. Trump has brought back a certain authenticity and willingness to engage. His frequent news conferences and interviews can be bracingly candid, uninhibited, even raw. He leaves little mystery about what is on his mind.

“The 2016 election wasn’t a delicate request to challenge existing traditions; it was a demand that our next president do things different,” said Jason Miller, a top adviser to Mr. Trump during the campaign. “And while the professional political class struggles to understand what has happened to their hold on power, supporters of President Trump — the forgotten men and women he referenced in his Inaugural Address — love the change they’re seeing.”

Presumably Mr. Trump will remain impulsive and even impetuous, but he has also been open to advice. He was talked out of lifting sanctions on Russia, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, abandoning the “one China” policy, tearing up the Iran nuclear agreement, reversing the diplomatic opening to Cuba, closing the Export-Import Bank, declaring China a currency manipulator and, in recent days, terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement. He may still do some or all of these, but by waiting, he has the opportunity to lay the groundwork rather than act precipitously.

He now receives his intelligence briefings most days. And aides said they had noticed signs of growth in office, pointing to his decision to strike Syria after it used chemical weapons on civilians and his private efforts to persuade Egypt to release an imprisoned American aid worker. Both cases showed that Mr. Trump “has absorbed the responsibilities of the office and the impact of the decisions he makes,” said a White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the boss.

Even if Mr. Trump adapts, though, the larger question is whether the institution will ever be the same. Future presidents may feel freer to make unfounded statements, withhold tax returns or keep private business interests without fear of political penalty. Taboos once broken no longer seem inviolable.

Still, Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and chief of staff for Mr. Obama, said there might be a backlash once Mr. Trump leaves office. “After Trump, there will be a collective desire to return to tradition,” he predicted. “Whoever comes next will be the anti-Trump in style and character. That’s how it works.”

Karl Rove, the senior adviser to the younger Mr. Bush, agreed. “President Trump will make it difficult for future presidents to step back from the use of social media,” he said, “but it’s very likely the next administration will be more restrained and less personal.” The next president, he added, will probably deploy social media as a premeditated strategy. “It will be part of a plan, not a method of catharsis.”

Meena Bose, the director of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University, said Mr. Trump’s presidency so far seemed unlike almost any other, except perhaps Andrew Jackson’s. She noted that Jackson was seen as erratic at the time but was later evaluated by historians as a near-great president.

“Might the Trump presidency be viewed similarly someday?” she asked. “Difficult to see at the 100-day mark, but that is an artificial measurement, with so much of the presidency still to come.”

Second straight North Korea ballistic missile test fails

An undated file photo released on 24 April 2016 by North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows an 'underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile' conducted at an undisclosed location in North Korea. According to media reports on 28 April 2017 state that North Korea has test-fired a ballistic missile an area just north of Pyongyang.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea's missile exploded shortly after launch. has test-id a missile from the western part of its country.

A North Korean ballistic missile test failed on takeoff early Saturday, the second straight failure this month, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The test came amid heightened global tensions over the reclusive nation's nuclear weapons program, which President Trump has vowed to stop through military means if diplomatic efforts and economic pressure fail.

The missile apparently exploded seconds after liftoff, South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said in a statement, according to Yonhap.

The missile was fired from a site in South Pyeongan province north of Pyongyang, the capital, in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, the BBC reported.

North Korea has not commented publicly on the latest firing.

In a statement, the U.S. Pacific Command office said the missile did not leave North Korean territory. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) "determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America," according to the statement.

The abortive test came just hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for tougher sanctions on China and others who trade with North Korea. He told the United Nations Security Council that military action should be considered along with other options.

"All options for responding to future provocations must remain on the table," he said. "Diplomatic and financial levers of power will be backed up by willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action, if necessary."

Tillerson said failure to act would be "catastrophic."

North Korea routinely test-fires a variety of ballistic missiles, despite U.N. prohibitions, as part of its push to develop a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching U.S. shores.

A missile launch on April 16 also failed upon launch. It followed a massive military parade, marking the birthday of North Korea state founder Kim Il-sung.

President Trump has taken a hard line with Pyongyang, vowing to prevent the regime of Kim Jong Un from developing a nuclear weapon capable of striking the U.S. He has pressed China, North Korea's closest ally and economic lifeline, to use its influence to persuade Kim to end his nuclear program.

Picture Source : USA TODAY

Trump was briefed on the latest missile test, the White House said in a statement. Shortly after, Trump tweeted that North Korea's test was a show of "disrespect" for China.

"North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!", Trump tweeted.

North Korea has vowed to defend itself with its stockpile of nuclear weapons if the U.S. attacks its territory. South Korea's capital of Seoul, with a metropolitan population of 25 million and thousands of U.S. troops stationed there, is a short distance from the North Korean border.

In Gettysburg speech, Trump made 100 days of promises. Did he keep them?

Donald Trump delivers a speech during a campaign event Oct. 22, 2016, in Gettysburg, Pa.

The first 100 days has been the traditional yardstick of a president's early achievements since Franklin Roosevelt. But no candidate in history laid out a first 100-day agenda as explicit as the one President Trump announced last October.

WASHINGTON — The first 100 days has been the traditional yardstick of a president's early achievements since Franklin Roosevelt. But no candidate in history laid out a first 100-day agenda as explicit as the one President Trump announced last October.

In a speech on the hallowed ground of Gettysburg, Pa. just 18 days before his surprise victory, Trump gave one of the most important speeches of his presidential campaign — turning a vague campaign promise to "Make America Great Again" into a specific 100-day action plan.

The list of 28 campaign promises, he said, was "a contract between Donald J. Trump and the American voter."

At the time, his campaign called it "a game-changing plan for his first 100 days in office."

Now that Trump is nearing that 100-day benchmark, though, he's calling it "a ridiculous standard" to measure a president's accomplishments.

Perhaps that's because the scope of his 100-day plan was enormously broad, covering a constitutional amendment, regulations, trade, tax reform, health care and the military. And the timeframe was ambitious: He promised to take executive action on the first 18 points of his 100-day contract on the very first day.

Spoiler alert: He didn't.

He's also 0 for 10 on his promises to achieve his goals through legislation. Only one — a health insurance rewrite — has even been introduced, and that fell apart as Trump couldn't get the support of House conservatives.

Did Trump keep his contract with the American voter?

A USA TODAY analysis of Trump’s first 100 days finds nine promises kept and four promises partially kept. Trump has taken no meaningful action on 12 promises, primarily the bills he said he would get Congress to take up. Two of Trump’s attempts to follow through on immigration promises have been blocked by the courts. And one promise – to rescind all of President Barack Obama’s unconstitutional executive orders – was too vague to evaluate.

Here's the breakdown:

On ethics and corruption

► Term limits: "A constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress."

There have been seven such amendments introduced in the House of Representatives this Congress, but none have gotten a hearing. The most popular, with 32 co-sponsors, is a measure proposed by Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., which would limit representatives to three terms and senators to two terms. Trump himself has been silent on the issue since becoming elected, but constitutional amendments don't require his signature.

► Hiring freeze: "A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition exempting military, public safety, and public health."

Trump signed a hiring freeze on the Monday after Inauguration Day but then lifted it this month. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the administration was replacing the across-the-board hiring freeze with "a more surgical plan.” It's not yet clear what effect the hiring freeze had on overall federal employment.

► Deregulation: "A requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated."

Trump signed the "one in, two out" executive order in January.

President Trump, surrounded by small-business leaders, signs the "one in, two out" executive order in the Oval Office on Jan. 30, 2017.

► Lobbying ban: "A five year-ban on White House and congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service, making a fortune."

Trump’s ethics executive order addresses only executive branch officials. The only bill introduced to address congressional officials is sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio — a Democrat — and has only three co-sponsors.

The order fails to meet an earlier promise Trump made — not tied to his first 100 days — to expand the definition of "lobbying." And it retains his ability to grant secret waivers to the rule.

"He started with something more robust and then moved into something less robust," said Maggie McKinley, a Harvard University fellow who studies lobbying and ethics. "On paper, he has begun to fulfill his promises. But with his lack of commitment to that executive order and his waivers of it — creating loopholes and exceptions — he hasn’t come close."

► Foreign lobbying ban: "A lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government."

Trump’s ethics executive order contains this provision.

► Foreign lobbyist contributions: "A complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections."

No Trump executive order has addressed this, and it's unclear whether legislation would be constitutional. Foreign governments and political parties often hire U.S. citizens to lobby on their behalf, and Trump himself accepted contributions from these foreign agents — and some Trump campaign and administration officials have admitted lobbying for foreign governments themselves.

On trade, energy and environment

► Renegotiate NAFTA: "I will announce my intention to totally renegotiate NAFTA — one of the worst deals our country has ever made — signed by Bill Clinton, or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205."

After speaking to the leaders of Mexico and Canada by phone on Wednesday, Trump announced that he would seek to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, rather than withdraw entirely.

► Withdraw from TPP:"I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country."

Trump signed a memorandum formally withdrawing from the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal on his first Monday in office.

► Chinese currency:"I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator. China is a currency manipulator," he said. "I blame our politicians for letting this take place. So easy to stop."

The Treasury Department's annual report on foreign exchange policies on April 14 conspicuously failed to label China — or any other country — a currency manipulator. In an apparent reversal, Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview, "they're not currency manipulators."

Trump defended his failure to take action on Twitter: “Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem?” he said April 16.

► Unfair trade practices: "I will direct the secretary of Commerce and U.S. trade representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately."

Trump signed that executive order March 31.

President Trump speaks about trade alongside Vice President Pence signing executive orders in the Oval Office on March 31, 2017.

► "Unlock" energy: "Very importantly I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of job producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal and we will put our miners back to work."

On March 28, Trump ordered agencies to "immediately review existing regulations that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy." The order also revoked a number of Obama regulatory executive actions on climate and energy production. And on Friday, Trump signed another executive order on offshore drilling, which could eventually open up new waters in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for oil and gas drilling.

► Pipelines: "I will lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks that allow for this vital energy infrastructure projects to forward. We have roadblocks like you've never ever seen. Environmental blocks, structural blocks, we're going to allow the Keystone Pipeline and so many other things to move forward. Tremendous numbers of jobs and good for our country."

In his first week in office, Trump signed presidential memoranda moving forward the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and formally approved the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline March 24.

► Climate change: "We are going to cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure. We're paying billions and billions and billions of dollars. We're going to fix our own environment."

An advance summary of Trump's proposed 2018 budget "eliminates the Global Climate Change Initiative and fulfills the president’s pledge to cease payments to the United Nations’ climate change programs." But that budget has not been passed — nor has the infrastructure plan that would earmark climate money to infrastructure.

On law, immigration and security

► Obama executive actions. "First, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama."

This promise begs the question of which Obama executive orders Trump believes were unconstitutional. Obama signed 276 executive orders and a record-breaking 257 presidential memoranda. Trump has explicitly revoked only a handful of them.

Revoked Obama orders include executive orders on government contracting, climate change, ethics, historically black colleges and universities, the creation of the White House Rural Council and the order of succession in the Justice Department. Trump has also revoked presidential memoranda on international abortion funding, climate change and national security, power plant pollution, wetlands mitigation,

► Supreme Court nomination: "Begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice (Antonin) Scalia. ... From one of the 20 judges on my list, you know we're going to make great decisions from twenty outstanding judges on a list that we submitted who will uphold and defend the constitution of the United States."

Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch, one of the judges on his pre-election list, to the Supreme Court on Jan. 31. He was confirmed April 3 and sworn in as an associate justice April 10. Conservative groups, including the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, count his appointment as a promise kept.

In this Jan. 31, 2017, file photo, President Trump shakes hands with Neil Gorsuch in East Room of the White House as he announces Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee.

► Sanctuary cities: "We will cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities."

A Jan. 25 executive order directed the attorney general to “take appropriate enforcement action” against jurisdictions that fail to respond to federal requests for information about undocumented immigrants in their custody. The Justice Department began to take steps against nine jurisdictions last week, threatening to withhold grant funds unless they certify their compliance with a federal law requiring them to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. But a federal judge blocked those attempts Tuesday, saying any strings on federal grants must be attached by Congress.

The order also required the Department of Homeland Security to compile “a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens” and any local law enforcement agencies that released them from their jails. ICE produced the first report on March 20, but “temporarily suspended” the reports three weeks later because they were riddled with errors.

► Deportations: "We will begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country these are drug dealers, gang heads, gang members, killers, and cancel visas to foreign countries that won't take them back."

A Washington Post analysis of federal data found that immigration-related arrests were up 32.6% in the first weeks of the Trump administration, and detainer requests — or “holds” on immigrants to be deported — were up 75%. But actual deportations — which can often take months to process — were down 1.2% in the first three months of the year.

But it's not just criminals being targeted. A USA TODAY analysis found that 26% of those arrested in the first immigration raids under Trump had no criminal record. Under Obama, it was just 10%.

Trump’s immigration dragnet has also stepped up enforcement against “DREAMers,” those who came to the United States as children and who were allowed to stay indefinitely under a 2012 Obama program. But Trump has deported at least 43 childhood arrivals in his first month after revoking their status for criminal activity.

► Travel ban: "We're going to suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. ... All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting. We will be very careful."

Trump’s first executive order on Jan. 27 was held up by several federal courts, prompting him to rewrite it on March 6. But enforcement of that order, too, has been legally blocked — most notably by a federal judge in Hawaii — and the issue could be headed to the Supreme Court.

The administration has also conceded that it has not developed procedures for the “extreme vetting” of refugees.

Legislative proposals

Unlike his promises on executive orders, which he intended to issue on day one of his presidency, Trump's legislative proposals had a 100-day timeline. In Gettysburg, Trump said he would "work with Congress to introduce" 10 key pieces of legislation, and "fight for their passage within the first 100 days."

By that measure, press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday, Trump has lived up to his promise. "I think we're going to continue to work with Congress — as he says in that document, 'I will work with Congress' to achieve these things; we are going to continue to work with Congress to achieve those."

Here's the status of his legislative wish list:

► Trump's promised Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act would give the typical middle-class family with two children a 35% tax cut, reduce the number of tax brackets and simplify tax forms. The business rate would be lowered to 15% — and 10% for offshore profits brought back to the United States.

Trump said he plans to release the outlines of a tax plan on Wednesday.

► The Offshoring Act would enact new tariffs on companies that move operations overseas and then try to ship their products back to the United States. "They leave the United States and fire all of their employees," Trump said. "So we will establish tariffs that when they do that there will be consequences."

The bill has not been introduced.

► The American Energy & Infrastructure Act would spend $1 trillion in infrastructure on bridges, highways, hospitals, schools, airports and other capital projects, through a combination of federal money and private investment. He also promised that the plan would be "revenue neutral," meaning it won't add to the deficit.

In Wisconsin last week, Trump said a proposal is coming soon. "Infrastructure is coming, and it’s coming fast," he said.

► The School Choice and Education Opportunity Act would provide taxpayer support to parents who want to send their children to private, charter, religious or home schools. It would also prohibit federal support of common core standards and support vocational education, Trump said.

No Trump-endorsed bill has been introduced, but a bill introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., the Ending Common Core and Expanding School Choice Act, would accomplish many of the same aims. That bill has no cosponsors and has been referred to committee.

► The Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act was Trump's name for a hypothetical, all-encompassing health care overhaul bill, including a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, expansion of health savings accounts and expedited drug approvals.

This was supposed to be a slam dunk, as Republicans have railed against the health care law throughout Obama's presidency. For procedural reasons, Congress is tackling the issue in phases, but its first attempt at phase one — the American Health Care Act — failed after conservatives withheld their support.

President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price leave Capitol Hill on March 21, 2017, after rallying support for the Republican health care overhaul with GOP lawmakers.

► The Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act would allows taxpayers to deduct childcare and elder care expenses and give employers more incentives to provide on-site child care.

The bill has not been introduced.

► The End Illegal Immigration Act would provide congressional funding the Mexican border wall "with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall." The proposal would establish a 2-year prison sentence for those who illegally re-enter the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year sentence for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanors or two or more deportations. "So when somebody comes in, we send them out. They come back, they go to prison for quite a while," he said. "Once you do that, they will stay out."

The bill has not been introduced. And the funding for the border wall appears to be delayed, as Trump now says he might push the battle over getting funding for a border wall until the 2018 fiscal year.

► The Restoring Community Safety Act would increase training and assistance to local police and provide funding to "dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars or out of our country."

The bill has not been introduced.

► The Restoring National Security Act would eliminate the budget "sequester" under the 2011 Budget Control Act, which limits increases in federal spending and keeps domestic spending on pace with defense. "Also, we are going to protect our vital infrastructure from the new thing, cyberattack," he said.

The spending issues would likely be addressed in the annual budget and spending bills. No standalone bill has been introduced.

► The Clean up Corruption in Washington Act would codify the ethics standards in Trump's executive order and extend them to members of Congress and their staff, banning them from lobbying for five years after leaving government — and change the definition of a lobbyist to "close all the loopholes."

Various ethics reform proposals have been introduced in Congress, but Trump has not formally endorsed any of them.

After French Vote, How Were the Polls So Right?

A rally for Marine Le Pen, the candidate for the far-right National Front party, in Lyon, France, in February. Ms. Le Pen has advanced to a runoff election in May.

French pollsters avoided the criticisms made of their counterparts in Britain and the U.S. by accurately predicting the first round of the presidential election.

After opinion polls in Britain and the United States were criticized, fairly or not, for failing to foresee British voters’ decision to leave the European Union and the election of Donald J. Trump, French pollsters could be forgiven for showing Gallic pride.

Despite a political earthquake in France that saw the upending of the traditional divisions between left and right, polling companies managed to predict the outcome of the first round of France’s presidential election on April 23 with a remarkable degree of precision. For the most part, they correctly forecast that Emmanuel Macron, a former economics minister, and Marine Le Pen, a nationalist firebrand, would progress to the second round, as well as the order of the three runners-up, within a percentage point or two.

“This first round is the revenge for the polling institutes,” proclaimed Paris Match, the popular French magazine. “Criticized since Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, they showed that they haven’t lost their clairvoyance when it comes to French politics.”

How did the French pollsters get it right when pollsters in other countries have not?

Anthony Wells, research director at YouGov, a leading British polling company, said that while pollsters across the world had been struggling to forecast the impact of rising populism in this era of disgruntled voters, French pollsters had an advantage because Ms. Le Pen’s party, the National Front, had been active in France for decades, giving them comparative data from previous elections.

The need to take the National Front seriously was made clear in 2002, when Ms. Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, shocked the country and confounded pollsters by making his way into a runoff for the presidency at the expense of a sitting prime minister, Lionel Jospin. Socialists held their noses — some literally with clothespins — and supported the center-right candidate, Jacques Chirac, dealing Mr. Le Pen an emphatic defeat.

Mr. Macron in Paris on Monday. The former economy minister is running against Ms. Le Pen in the runoff election next month.

Polling experts said French pollsters had also benefited from a robust turnout of 78.7 percent in the first round.

“If the voters pollsters talk to turn out in force, there is less risk of getting it wrong,” said Prof. Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the Political Forecasting Unit at Nottingham Business School.

Several French pollsters also credited their success to the widespread use of online polling. While the practice has its critics, some pollsters say people are more likely to acknowledge that they are voting for a far-right party like the National Front if they are doing so by clicking a box on a website rather than if they are being asked by a stranger over the phone.

“In online polling you guard against the problem of hidden voters, who don’t want to admit to a stranger who they are voting for,” said Frédéric Dabi, the director general of Ifop, one of the country’s leading polling companies.

Getting the polls right initially appeared daunting for many pollsters. In the 16 weeks leading up to the first-round vote, assessing the prospects of a fragmented field of 11 candidates, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a leftist, and François Fillon, a center-right candidate hit by scandals, appeared so fraught that the newspaper Le Parisien, which regularly runs polls, decided not to run any.

Adding to the challenges for pollsters, Mr. Macron was running without a political party and some doubted that his new movement could mobilize voters. Mr. Fillon, initially the front-runner, became mired in a corruption scandal. Mr. Mélenchon surged after a televised debate. Then, less than 36 hours before the polls opened, a gunman killed a police officer on the Champs-Élysées, potentially influencing the election.

Ms. Le Pen speaking in Monswiller, France, this month. Some analysts see a path to victory if her motivated supporters turn out en masse and enough of Mr. Macron’s supporters stay home.

“We were worried before the election because this was not a traditional election between left and right, and there was a large element of unpredictability,” said Bruno Jeanbart, the deputy managing director of OpinionWay, a leading Paris-based polling company.

But the results largely mirrored the polls. On April 21, the last day forecasts were published ahead of the vote, an average of eight major polls assembled by OpinionWay put Mr. Macron at 24 percent, Ms. Le Pen at 22.4 percent, Mr. Fillon at 19.4 percent and Mr. Mélenchon at 18.9 percent. The final results: 24 percent for Mr. Macron; 21.3 percent for Ms. Le Pen; 20 percent for Mr. Fillon; and 19.6 percent for Mr. Mélenchon.

Looking to the second round, the candidates are offering diametrically opposed visions of France. While Mr. Macron, a former banker, favors economic liberalism and more European integration, Ms. Le Pen rails against immigrants, globalization and the European Union.

French pollsters say they are confident they can replicate their success in the first round and are predicting that Mr. Macron will win by as much as 20 percentage points.

OpinionWay has been predicting that Mr. Macron will get 59 percent of the vote compared with 41 percent for Ms. Le Pen. Mr. Jeanbart said he was confident about that forecast because fewer than a tenth of voters aged 65 or older, who tend to support the European Union, had voted for the Ms. Le Pen in the first round, and they constitute a quarter of registered voters. He also said it was easier to predict the performance of two candidates compared with 11.

But voters around the world are learning to be wary of certainties, and some analysts see a path to victory for Ms. Le Pen if her motivated supporters turn out in force and enough of Mr. Macron’s supporters stay home.

Mr. Dabi of Ifop warned against those professing to have political crystal balls. “It is idiotic to say that Macron will win when the campaign is still on,” he said, adding, “We are not clairvoyants who can predict the future.”

Canada Today: Behind the Green Gables, Trade Twists and Strange Skies

Amybeth McNulty, the star of the book’s coming Netflix adaptation, “Anne With an E,” near her home in County Donegal, Ireland.

Prince Edward Island has long held an international profile thanks to a fictional redheaded orphan named Anne Shirley, the protagonist of the 1908 novel “Anne of Green Gables.”

With a population of just 146,000, Prince Edward Island is Canada’s tiniest province. But it has long held an international profile thanks to a fictional redheaded orphan named Anne Shirley, the protagonist of the beloved 1908 novel “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Willa Pakin writes in the Times Magazine that Polish resistance fighters carried the book to the front and that because of Japan’s large number of postwar orphans, it became part of the school curriculum in the 1950s.

The orphan’s story has been adapted and readapted endlessly. Now it’s back on television. “Anne,” as it’s known on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where its first season winds up on Sunday, is a much different take than earlier film and television productions. It was written and produced by Moira Walley-Beckett, a Vancouver native now based in California. Ms. Pakin writes that “the cheerful novel has, in Walley-Beckett’s hands, become much darker.” Given that Ms. Walley-Beckett’s previous work includes writing for “Breaking Bad,” that shift may not be entirely a surprise, and holds the potential to offend Anne loyalists.

Next month the show will start streaming in the United States on Netflix under the title “Anne With an E.” Canadians who have missed the show can still view it on the CBC’s site until the end of the year.

Turmoil To my knowledge, Hollywood has yet to portray journalists dashing around the world to cover trade talks. As someone who has reported on several negotiations — including the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement — I’d suggest the studios keep it that way.

While the outcome of trade talks often has a powerful influence on a large number of lives and trade issues can stir political passions, trade negotiations usually move at a stately pace and occur mostly in secret. The closest they generally come to drama is the inevitable wait until a final deadline before a deal is announced.

Over past week or so, however, President Trump brought some drama to the somnambulant trade world. First his administration used the latest round in an endless lumber dispute with Canada (the first trade story I covered and one my children can likely inherit if they wish) and an obscure dairy dispute to bash Canadian trade policy. That was soon followed up by suggestions that the president was about to sign Nafta’s death warrant.

Then that zig was followed by the zag of an announcement that Mr. Trump wasn’t going to rip up Nafta, at least for now, but renegotiate it. The change was partly the result of a coordinated effort by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico.

While it’s possible that state of affairs may have spiraled off in yet another direction by the time you read this, it’s more likely that Mr. Trudeau’s government will be focused on figuring out what Canada wants from any talks. We’ve prepared a look at four industries that may become hot points. Mr. Trudeau’s office is also likely hoping that any negotiations will follow the plodding traditions of the past.

Symbolic Catherine Porter was in British Columbia this week on an unrelated assignment when she also found herself looking into the world of totem poles. One result is a fascinating Facebook Live video in which the master carver Christian White shows how he makes them at his workshop in Massett on the Haida Gwaii archipelago. I asked Ms. Porter what prompted her interest: “Haida Gwaii and totem poles are married in my imagination. But I assumed most of the ones I saw on the streets of Old Massett were either relics or copies from distant Haida history — before smallpox, the Indian Act, the potlatch ban, residential schools. Then I stumbled into Christian White’s carving shed, to find his son chipping away at a 62-foot cedar log.” Watch for a story about Mr. White’s work, coming soon.

Old Stock Volkswagen dealers in Canada have quietly dusted off and put back on sale cars that were frozen in inventory in 2015 because of the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal. The cars have the first part of a new emissions control fix installed and they’re being offered with extraordinary discounts. But I found one expert who cautions that this may be a deal to avoid.

Shooting Star Kevin O’Leary, the investor made famous by reality television, was the last of the 14 candidates to join the race to replace Stephen Harper as Conservative leader. Unexpectedly, he dropped out this week, citing his lack of support in Quebec. The complex voting system, and the sheer number of candidates, still make the race impossible to call as it enters its final month.

A stream of hot, fast-moving gas, nicknamed Steve, glowing over Porteau Cove Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada, in May 2016.

Glowing Heavens Look, up in the sky! In many places in Canada you’ll see something scientists aren’t exactly sure how to describe. So for now, they’re calling it Steve.

France election: New far right leader quits in Holocaust row

Jean-François Jalkh, left, is being replaced by Steeve Briois after only three days at the helm

Marine Le Pen's replacement as National Front leader quits over alleged comments.

France's far-right National Front (FN) has replaced its leader for the second time in three days after a row erupted about Holocaust denial.

Jean-François Jalkh had been named as the interim president on Tuesday after Marine Le Pen stepped aside to fight for the French presidency.

Mr Jalkh denies claims that in past remarks he questioned the reality of Nazi gas chambers.

He is being replaced by Steeve Briois, one of the party's MEPs.

Like Mr Jalkh, Mr Briois is also one of the party's five vice-presidents. He is mayor of the National Front-run town of Henin-Beaumont in northern France.

"Mr Briois will take over the interim leadership and there'll be no more talk about it," fellow FN vice-president Louis Aliot - who is also Ms Le Pen's partner - told BFMTV news channel.

It is an unwelcome development for Ms Le Pen, who has worked hard to distance her party from its anti-Semitic roots - expelling her father from the party he founded over his comments that the gas chambers were a "detail of history".

On Friday, Jean-Marie Le Pen waded into the controversy again, saying that a speech at a memorial for gay policeman Xavier Jugelé, who was killed by a gunman, had "exalted" the concept of gay marriage. The speech was given by Mr Jugelé's widower.

Ms Le Pen herself drew strong criticism on 9 April when she suggested France was not responsible for a 1942 wartime round-up of 13,000 Jews, who were sent from France to Nazi death camps.

In a coincidental twist, Ms Le Pen's rival for the presidency, Emmanuel Macron, on Friday visited the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where Waffen-SS troops murdered 642 people in June 1944 in the worst Nazi massacre in occupied France.

The polling average line looks at the five most recent national polls and takes the median value, ie, the value between the two figures that are higher and two figures that are lower.

Opinion polls taken since the first round on Sunday suggest Mr Macron, candidate of the En Marche (On The Move) movement, will easily beat Ms Le Pen in the second round on 7 May.

However, pollsters warn that high levels of abstention by would-be Macron supporters or an unexpected event could upset the predictions.
'Technically impossible'

In a move widely decried by her critics as a stunt, Ms Le Pen announced she was temporarily stepping aside as FN leader on Monday. She said she wanted to remain "above partisan considerations" as she campaigned for 7 May.

But when Mr Jalkh was announced as her replacement on Tuesday, excerpts surfaced of an interview conducted with academic Magali Boumaza in 2000 in which Mr Jalke questioned whether the Nazis had used the cyanide-based pesticide Zyklon-B in the gas chambers.

"I consider it technically impossible - I repeat, impossible - to use it... in mass murder," Le Monde daily (in French) quoted him as saying. "Why? Because you have to wait several days before you can decontaminate a place where Zyklon B was used."

He also praised the "seriousness and rigour" of arguments put forward by Robert Faurisson, who has multiple convictions for Holocaust denial.

Mr Jalkh denies making these remarks.

"He feels that the climate is not conducive for him to carry out this interim role," Mr Aliot told BFMTV.

"He wants to defend himself and he will be filing a legal complaint because he feels that his honour has been attacked and I can tell you that he firmly and formally contests what he is accused of."

Donald Trump’s warning of major conflict, as North Korea turns to Southeast Asian nations for support

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

US President Donald Trump said a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute.

“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office.

Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple US presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.

“We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said.

Trump lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese assistance in trying to rein in North Korea. The two leaders met in Florida earlier this month.

“I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well.

“With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t,” Trump said.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House.

Trump spoke just a day after he and his top national security advisers briefed US lawmakers on the North Korean threat and one day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The Trump administration on Wednesday declared North Korea “an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority.” It said it was focusing on economic and diplomatic pressure, including Chinese cooperation in containing its defiant neighbor and ally, and remained open to negotiations.

A submarine-launched ballistic missile is displayed in Kim Il-sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea.

US officials said military strikes remained an option but played down the prospect, though the administration has sent an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a show of force.

Any direct US military action would run the risk of massive North Korean retaliation and huge casualties in Japan and South Korea and among U.S. forces in both countries.

Trump, asked if he considered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be rational, said he was operating from the assumption that he is rational. He noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves during a military parade in Pyongyang.

“He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age.

“I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said.

Trump, sipping a Coke delivered by an aide after the president ordered it by pressing a button on his desk, appeared to rebuff an overture from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who told Reuters a direct phone call with Trump could take place again after their first conversation in early December angered Beijing.

China considers neighboring Taiwan to be a renegade province.

“My problem is that I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi,” said Trump. “I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation. So I wouldn’t want to be causing difficulty right now for him.”

“So I would certainly want to speak to him first.”

S KOREA TO PAY FOR MISSILE SYSTEM

President Trump told Reuters he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a “horrible” free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a US anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea “unacceptable” and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completes a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

He blamed the US-Korean trade deal, known as KORUS, on his 2016 Democratic presidential election opponent, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state promoted the final version of the trade pact before its approval by Congress in 2011.

“It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary,” the Republican Trump said. “It’s a horrible deal, and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it.”

US Army soldiers install their missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, at a golf course in Seongju, South Korea.

KORUS was initially negotiated by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush in 2007, but that version was scrapped and renegotiated by President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration three years later.

The U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea has more than doubled since KORUS took effect in March 2012, from $13.2 billion in 2011 to $27.7 billion in 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Trump said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system now being deployed in South Korea to defend against a potential missile attack from North Korea would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it.

“I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It’s a billion dollar system,” Trump said. “It’s phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky.”

US Forces in Korea as they continue progress in fulfilling the South Korea-US alliance decision to install a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, on the Korean Peninsula.

N KOREA APPEALS FOR SUPPORT

NORTH Korea has appealed to Southeast Asian countries for support in its row with the United States to prevent what it warned could be a “nuclear holocaust”.

In a letter to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ secretary-general, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho warned the situation on the Korean Peninsula was “reaching the brink of war” because of Washington’s actions.

He urged the ASEAN chief to inform the 10-nation organisation’s foreign ministers “about the grave situation” on the peninsula “and give them a proper proposal”, while criticising at length US-South Korean military exercises.

Tensions have soared in the region in recent weeks in the wake of a series of North Korean missile tests and tough rhetoric from Washington on the isolated nation’s rogue weapons program.

Commandoes march across the Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang.

A copy of the North’s letter, dated March 23, was obtained by AFP on Thursday ahead of an ASEAN leaders’ summit in Manila where they are expected to discuss the situation on the peninsula.

“I express my expectations that ASEAN which attaches great importance to the regional peace and stability will make an issue of the US-South Korean joint military exercises at ASEAN conferences from the fair position and play an active role in safeguarding the peace and safety of Korean Peninsula,” the letter said.

North Korea is known to have close ties with some ASEAN members, including Cambodia and Laos.

THREAT TAKEN SERIOUSLY: TURNBULL

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has responded to Pyongyang’s latest threats, saying the Australian government is taking the possibility of a nuclear attack very seriously.

“There is the possibility and the risk that North Korea could launch an attack on its neighbours,” Mr Turnbull told 3AW host Neil Mitchell this morning.

“That is the reason why there is so much effort being put into seeking to stop this reckless and dangerous conduct by the North Korean regime,” he said.

Kim Jong-Un attending the combined fire demonstration of the services of the Korean People's Army.

“They are a real threat to the peace and stability in the region and the whole world.”

When pushed on the possibility that the world was headed for nuclear war, Mr Turnbull said how other countries responded if North Korea carried out a nuclear attack would “depend on events”.

“At this stage, obviously, they’ve not carried out those threats,” he said.

“Their threats can appear to be theatrical and over the top and the subject of satire but I can assure you my government takes the threat of North Korea very, very seriously.”

The Prime Minister said “extensive sanctions” and pressure on China to intervene were Australia’s primary response to the growing threat that North Korea could develop a long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching our shores within two years.

U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), foreground, transits the Philippine Sea, ready to act.

But he did not rule out upgrading the nation’s missile defence systems if the threat evolved.

“As threats evolve our response to them would evolve,” Mr Turnbull said.

“But right at the moment we do not deploy a THAAD - this is the anti-missile system that is being deployed in South Korea - we do not deploy that in Australia.

“Nor do we see the need to do so.

“What we are doing in term of stopping North Korea is continuing our pressure on the regime through extensive sanctions, economic sanctions, which are designed to bring North Korea to its senses and urging North Korea’s neighbours to bring its considerable leverage to bear on North Korea to change its ways.

“It has not been enough to date because ... the reckless threats and conduct by the North Korean regime has continued.”

Mr Turnbull said he was still “quietly confident” the Chinese would act to rein in North Korea.

In what military experts say appears to be a North Korean KN-08 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICMB) is paraded across Kim Il Sung Square.

ASEAN has in the past spoken out against North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

A statement released at the end of an ASEAN leaders’ summit in Laos last year expressed “serious concern” over North Korea’s nuclear testing and called on it to abide by relevant UN Security Council resolutions meant to curtail its atomic program.

Ri’s letter appeared to be a highly unusual move. A Southeast Asian diplomat said that, as far as he could recall, it was the first time North Korea had written a letter seeking ASEAN’s help on the issue.

Kim Jong-nam was assassinated at an airport in Malaysia.

It comes after Pyongyang’s diplomatic ties with ASEAN member Malaysia were seriously damaged with the assassination in Kuala Lumpur in February of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

South Korea has blamed Pyongyang for the killing, accusing its agents of using a banned nerve agent.

Ri wrote in the letter that the annual US-South Korea military exercises justified Pyongyang’s decision to develop its own nuclear weapons.

“It is a fact clear to everyone that when they deploy the means of nuclear strike that can drive the Korean Peninsula into a nuclear holocaust in just seconds ... the nature of such exercises can in no way be defensive,” the letter said.

Washington has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the Korean peninsula amid signs the North could be preparing for a sixth nuclear test.

Washington has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the Korean peninsula amid signs the North could be preparing for a sixth nuclear test.

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