Thursday Morning Scoop: Meet Me Halfway
Korean Summit Set for April 27
South Korean officials announced yesterday that their president, Moon Jae-in, will meet face-to-face with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on April 27, with hopes high that the two countries can resolve longstanding tensions over the North’s nuclear program.
The meeting will precede what is rumored to be a summit between Kim Jong Un and President Trump, planned for some time this spring. The normally reclusive leader left the country for the first time since 2011 last week, taking a train trip to China for meetings with Xi Jinping.
Leaders of the two countries have only met twice since the 1950-53 Korean War, in 2000 and 2007.
Trump Ousts Veterans Affairs Secretary
President Trump announced Wednesday that he is replacing his Veterans Affair Secretary David Shulkin with Ronny Jackson, the current physician of the President.
CNN reports, “Trump thanked Shulkin via Twitter for his ‘service to our country and to our GREAT VETERANS’ and said Robert Wilkie, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, will serve as acting secretary until Jackson is confirmed.”
A White House official says Shulkin was booted because he was no longer effective in his role and “distractions were getting in the way of carrying out the President’s agenda.”
Politics junkies should check out this Vox piece, which ranks the remaining Trump cabinet members by how likely they are to get fired.
Today in a Tweet
Twitter is all about #OpeningDay.
NRA Donations Tripled After Parkland Shooting
Despite the public attacks against the National Rifle Association following the February 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, contributions to the organization tripled in February.
According to recent Federal Election Commission data, supporters of the NRA donated about $779,000 in February, just over triple the $248,000 that was collected in January.
Read Arianna Lynne’s CMN report for full details on this trend.
A Homecoming: Malala Makes A Visit to Pakistan
Malala Yousafzai, famous activist for female education, was able to return to her home country of Pakistan yesterday, five years after the Taliban attempted to assassinate her because of her advocacy for female education.
Yousafzai was ecstatic to return home, “I am very happy, and I still can’t believe that this is actually happening … in the last five years I have always just seen this dream of setting foot in my homeland,” according to Newsweek.
Read more in Gigi Foster’s report for CMN.
Last But Not Least: You Can Now Literally Run on Dunkin’
Ahead of the 2018 Boston Marathon, Boston-based companies Dunkin’ Donuts and Saucony have merged their best assets to create a limited-edition running shoe that literally runs on Dunkin’.
Using the Dunkin’ color scheme, the shoes feature most of the essentials: hot and iced coffee, a pink frosted doughnut, and sprinkles. See pics of the shoes and get more details in the CMN report from Erin Whitten (who’s from Boston, of course).
Thursday’s Morning Scoop was compiled by Natalia Kolenko, and the CMN Staff. We love you Thursday. You remind us a lot of Friday.
