But for all the talk of resisting the “malign activities” of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin, Washington’s European partners are still concerned that President Donald Trump will tear up the Iran nuclear deal.

And all the G7 partners remain anxious for clues as to how the unpredictable US leader will handle a planned disarmament summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

“There was G7 unity on opposing Russia’s malign behavior,” a senior US official told reporters, citing Moscow’s failure to prevent Syrian forces from using chemical weapons and interference in Western elections.

The final joint statement from the talks will not be released until Monday, but officials from other nations confirmed that the ministers had taken a tough line on Russia’s alleged crimes.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who begins a series of meetings with Trump on Monday, said in an interview that the West must stand up to Putin’s attacks on western democracy, including the spreading of “fake news.”

“He’s strong and smart. But don’t be naive. He’s obsessed by interference in our democracies,” Macron told “Fox News Sunday” before setting off for Washington.

“That’s why I do believe that we should never be weak with President Putin. When you are weak, he uses it.”

Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland hosted the meeting and invited her G7 colleagues plus the European Union’s representative to a working lunch to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have seized an eastern region.

Later, she said G7 members had “reaffirmed our unity in support of Ukraine and a rules-based international order where state sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by all.”

Deadly nerve agent

G7 capitals are also worried about Russia’s support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime in his country’s brutal civil war and alleged attempt to kill a defector with a nerve agent on British soil.

The senior US official stressed that this month’s joint US, French and British air strikes against Assad’s chemical sites were “not a one-off but was part of a sustained allied campaign to reestablish the deterrent against chemical weapons, and that includes using military means again if necessary.”

But, while the Western allies appeared united in their resolve to face down Russia, the European partners remain concerned that Trump may tear up the 2015 Iran nuclear deal next month.

Trump has threatened to abandon the accord unless European capitals agree to supplement it with tougher controls on Iran’s missile program and future ability to enrich nuclear fuel.

His partners maintain that the implementation of the agreement under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) represents the best way to prevent Tehran from seeking the atomic bomb.

“We’ve been negotiating with the Europeans,” a senior US official accompanying Acting Secretary of State John Sullivan told reporters. “We’ve made a great deal of progress but we’re not there yet.”

During a day-long series of talks, Sullivan stepped aside for a brief bilateral meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

As the pair sat down in the office of the chancellor of the University of Toronto, Johnson was heard telling his US counterpart “one of the things we are concerned about now is the JCPOA and where that is headed.”

A French diplomatic source told AFP that: “Several G7 ministers, led by the French, made a strong appeal to the United States… As it stands, we must not throw the JCPOA out with the bath water.”

The Europeans are willing to work on a supplement to the deal which would not abrogate it, and would toughen controls on Iran’s missile program but “not give Iran a pretext to pull out, which would have disastrous consequences.”

The ministers also discussed North Korea.

Last month, in one of the most surprising twists in world affairs for decades, Trump accepted an invitation from Pyongyang’s autocrat to a summit to discuss to discuss his nuclear disarmament.

Tougher nuclear controls

The G7 members, including frontline state Japan, support efforts to convince Kim to end his efforts to develop a strategic nuclear missile arsenal, but are also keen to hear more from the US side.

Kim is sure to make wide demands of the West, and allies are keen to ensure that Trump does not give too much away to secure a historic deal.

After the foreign affairs meeting, the ministers will be joined on Monday by their domestic security counterparts and discussions will be widened to encompass counterterrorism and cyber security.

Police in the Tennessee city of Nashville said the suspect in the country’s latest mass shooting may have had “mental issues,” and the incident led the city’s mayor to issue an unusually blunt call for “comprehensive gun reform.”

The Metro Nashville Police Department said three people were shot dead at the all-night Waffle House restaurant in the suburb of Antioch at 3:25 am (0825 GMT).

The fourth victim died in hospital and two others were wounded.

Police identified the suspect as Travis Reinking and said he could be armed with a rifle and a handgun, after firing an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at the restaurant, where he was nude except for a green jacket.

A military-style weapon, the AR-15 has been regularly used in US mass shootings.

James Shaw, 29, told a press conference that he and his friend had sat down in the diner after visiting a nightclub, when they thought a pile of plates had crashed.

“I saw the Waffle House employees scatter. Then I looked back and I saw a person laying on the ground right at the entrance of the door,” said Shaw, wearing a brown suit jacket and with his right forearm bandaged.

Shaw said he slid from his table and moved toward the door, which the gunman was trying to enter after apparently firing through the glass.

“I’m pretty sure he grazed my arm,” said Shaw, 29.

“I kind of made up my mind, because there’s no way to lock that door, that if it was gonna come down to it, he was gonna have to work to kill me.”

As the shooter was either reloading, or the weapon jammed, Shaw ran and hit him with the swivel door, leading to a scuffle.

“I managed to get him with one hand on the gun, and then I grabbed it from him and threw it over the countertop,” before getting the suspect outside, Shaw said.

Police said they believe the gunman discarded the jacket while fleeing to his home, where he put on a pair of pants and then disappeared into nearby woods.

Guns were confiscated

It was the second shooting in months to traumatize Nashville, but only the latest of many in the US with large casualties.

A grassroots campaign featuring mass rallies for gun control has emerged since February, when a former student opened fire with an AR-15 at a Florida high school, killing 17 students and staff.

After that attack, businesses including Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods took measures to restrict access to firearms but there has been no major legislation to control guns.

In September, a 25-year-old killed one person and wounded six others during Sunday services at a church in Nashville, which prefers to be known for its country music heritage.

That was just one of the more than 30,000 gun-related deaths annually in the United States.

“We need comprehensive gun reform to address mass shootings, domestic shootings, accidental shootings and homicides,” Nashville Mayor David Briley told the press conference.

He said these “weapons of war” should be removed from the nation’s streets.

“It’s happening too much. Enough is enough,” Briley said.

The mayor hailed Shaw’s courage, as did Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson and Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer.

“You don’t get to meet many heroes in life, Mr Shaw, but you are a hero. You are my hero. You saved people’s lives,” Ehmer told him.

“We’re forever in your debt.”

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters that Reinking, originally from Illinois, had been arrested by the US Secret Service for being in a restricted area near the White House in July 2017.

At that time, his Illinois firearms authorization was revoked and his weapons — including the AR-15 — were seized.

But local authorities in Illinois later returned them to Reinking’s father, “who has now acknowledged giving them back to his son,” Aaron said.

Voan Savay, the legendary former prima ballerina of the Cambodian Royal Ballet, keeps her eyes glued to the young dancer rehearsing on the stage. After two months of preparation, this is one of the final dress rehearsals for a brand new production from Cambodian Living Arts, and the show is finally coming together.

From the front row of the theatre at the National Museum, Savay shouts instructions to the young woman and claps along with the beat of the music, illustrating which rhythms to emphasise. One can’t help but wonder if the dancer on stage knows what big shoes she’s been tasked with filling.

Dancer Rith Daro awaits direction during a rehearsal of the Moni Mekhala dance. Daro plays Ream Eyso, the giant. HENG CHIVOAN

In a brief pause in the rehearsal while the technicians adjust the lighting Savay turns around in her seat and pulls up a photograph of herself from 1969, a golden era for ballet in the country. The image shows an 18-year-old ballerina in her prime, performing the Moni Mekhala, the very same dance being readied in front of her.

The music starts up again, and the young dancer on the stage resumes her run-through.

The performance these dancers are working towards will hold its official premiere just after Khmer New Year, and showcases classical ballet, traditional folk dancing and storytelling, all linked by one cohesive narrative.

On the stage, the cast seamlessly weaves together scenes of rural life with traditional works like the Moni Mekhala and various animal dances. The dancers perform each of these numbers with truly infectious joy – the monkeys frolic rambunctiously, the peacocks preen, the goddesses float across the stage, and when the villagers dance and play it’s impossible to resist swaying in your seat and clapping along.

But, for all the show’s artistic merit, which it has in spades, some of the most innovative aspects of this production take place offstage and out of view of the audience. Behind the scenes, Cambodian Living Arts is attempting to create a new model for cultivating and sustaining the arts and artists in this country.

It’s an effort that is requiring these young artists, and the people like Savay working behind the scenes to support them, to take these heavenly, ethereal artforms and bring them pragmatically crashing down to earth – by teaching ballerinas how to budget, and walking dancers through the intricate steps of contract negotiation.

The incubator

The cast of this new performance was put together over the course of several rounds of auditions in January. More than 70 artists tried out and 30 were picked to participate in a new group that CLA is unofficially calling the “incubator troupe”.

These performers will remain in the program for two years, and during that time they will be getting much more than artistic guidance and training. In all-day sessions held once per month, CLA will also be teaching them the hard skills needed to make a living from their craft – skills like budgeting, contract negotiation, networking and team-building – making the incubator project a sort of business school for artists.

“Preservation stands shoulder to shoulder with artistic development”

Jean-Baptiste Phou, the head of creative programs at Cambodian Living Arts, said that to him and others involved in the incubator, this approach just makes sense – while people often talk about valuing the arts, they think less about what it takes for artists to get by. And, he said, we also don’t properly teach our artists to know their own worth.

“I think it’s important because we value arts and artists and need them to value themselves,” he said. “They need to make a living.”

The hope is that by giving these artists the tools to sustain themselves, the arts they practice can live on as well.

“It’s not just about preservation,” said Yon Sokhorn, who manages the artistic and professional training the incubator artists will receive, “but preservation stands shoulder to shoulder with artistic development”.

Everyone involved in this project, from Savay down to the individual dancers and actors, speaks of their work protecting these artforms as a sort of calling.

“As a Cambodian, I am very happy to know my own culture and to be able to perform it on stage,” said Somkhoun Sayavuk, 25, a member of the incubator troupe, who said that even from a young age he knew that he wanted to protect and preserve the artistic traditions of this country.

“I want to show Cambodian people from all generations about the richness of our culture,” he said.

For many artists working today, however, that calling to make and protect art comes with an increasingly difficult life.

Choreographer Voan Savay gives feedback to dancer Vann Sreynich.//HENG CHIVOAN

A ‘life mission’

Savay is no stranger to struggling for her art, but even she thinks that the obstacles facing this current generation of artists are daunting.

During the Khmer Rouge period, when Savay’s family was evicted from Phnom Penh in 1975, she hid the fact that she was a dancer in order to survive. She later returned to the city after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and took up dancing once again, only to be forced from her home by political instability for a second time in 1981. She settled in refugee camps along the Thai border with her husband, a fellow artist, but even then she didn’t let her circumstances keep her from her devotion to ballet.

Voan Savay in 1969. Photo supplied

During the 10 years Savay spent in the camps she established a dance school and taught dozens of Cambodian children, many of whom grew up to be artists in their own right. One of Savay’s students from that time now lends her voice to the music for the CLA performance.

But, despite all of the twists and turns of Savay’s life, she still maintains she has been luckier in her career than most of the dancers working today. She admits that she doesn’t know how most young artists survive on the low amounts of money they are able to earn from their hard work, and she laments the fact that financial concerns force many of them to work in places she sees as beneath their lofty craft – like hotel lobbies and restaurants. In her opinion, performing classical dance in these locations cheapens the artform.

Savay also noted that younger artists aren’t just up against financial difficulty but also disinterest from the Khmer public, something that wasn’t the case in her time performing. In her day, she said, a Royal Ballet performance would attract streams of people from the provinces to the capital, often camping out just to get the chance to see the company’s storied ballerinas perform. Now, a show is a success if it can get even a handful of locals to attend.

Her contributions today are perhaps more humble but arguably longer lasting than in her youth.

“Before I thought of dancing as a way to show off and to get the love from my parents and my friends,” Savay said. “However, right now, I see it as a life mission until the day I die.”

Additional reporting by Ouk Suntharoth

The premiere takes place on April 19 at 7pm, on the grounds of the National Museum of Cambodia. It will then be on stage six nights per week, at 7pm from Monday to Saturday for the foreseeable future.

The “golden shower” can be spotted in several areas on the island as the withered petals of the trees fell like snow to form a yellow carpet on the ground.

These flowers usually bloom in March until early April and they only stay on the trees for a day. Teacher B. Premala, 61, said she was mesmerised by the sight of the flowers.

“Whenever they are in season, I am in awe of their beauty. It is really nice to see the bright yellow flowers standing out among the leaves on the trees, and when they drop, they leave a nice yellow bed on the ground,” she said.

Several passers-by could be seen taking snapshots of the picturesque scene with their mobile phones and cameras.

Nevertheless, Penang Island City Council road sweepers will be kept busy as they have to clear the petals to keep the roads clean.

The angsana flowers are also known as “Qing Ming flowers” as they usually bloom in March and last through the Qing Ming (Chinese All Souls Day) until early April.

While no cause of death was given, a statement on the actor’s social media accounts said he had gone through a “recent time of adversity” and alluded to suicide and depression as “serious issues.”

“Over the years he’s struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much,” it added.

“Depression and Suicide are very serious issues. You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside. Be kind to one another. And always know, it’s never too late to reach out to someone for help.”

Troyer, who lived in Los Angeles, was taken to hospital early this month for unspecified treatment. The actor spoke about his alcohol addiction during another hospital stay a year ago.

One of the world’s shortest men at just two feet eight inches (81 centimeters) due to achondroplasia dwarfism, according to reports, Troyer was born in 1969 in Sturgis, Michigan.

He first entered show business as a stunt person in “Baby’s Day Out” (1994).

“In 1993, I was working for Sprint in customer service, and a friend of mine who was the president of LPA — Little People of America — got a phone call from the producers of ‘Baby’s Day Out,’ and they were wondering if there was anyone close to a stand-in size,” he recalled in a 2012 interview with Hollywood Chicago.

“I guess they searched worldwide and couldn’t find anyone. I sent in my picture, and they flew me out to Hollywood to meet with them. Two days later, they offered me the job, and I quit my job at Sprint.”

– ‘Extremely caring’ –

Tributes poured in for the small man with an outsized personality.

“Verne was the consummate professional and a beacon of positivity for those of us who had the honor of working with him,” Mike Myers, his “Austin Powers” co-star said in a statement. “It is a sad day, but I hope he is in a better place. He will be greatly missed.”

Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin said she was “so sad” over the news of Troyer’s death.

“A lovely smile with a caring and big heart, he helped raise money on behalf of @starkeycares for free hearing aids for deaf and hard of hearing people. RIP,” added Matlin, who is deaf.

Ludacris posted on Instagram a photograph of himself with Troyer strapped to him in a baby carrier, taken from the rapper’s “Number One Spot” music video. The pair are wearing the same gray costume.

“R.I.P. Verne Troyer aka Mini Me. You made it to that #1 Spot Glad we got to make history,” Ludacris wrote.

In addition to his breakout role as the “Mini-Me” — a diminutive, hairless clone of villain Dr Evil — in the first Austin Powers movie “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” Troyer was also known for playing Griphook in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

“Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy and laugh. Anybody in need, he would help to any extent possible,” added the post on Troyer’s social media accounts.

“He inspired people around the world with his drive, determination and attitude.”//AFP

Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, 35, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Saturday, according to Malaysian authorities.

He was walking from his highrise apartment to dawn prayers at a local mosque in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Gombak when he was shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle, officials added.

At the crime scene, police markers indicated 14 bullets had been sprayed at the victim, some of them hitting a wall. An iron grill hit by a bullet was dented.

Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, was quoted by the state-run Bernama news agency as saying Batsh was “an electrical engineer and an expert at making rockets”.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim said the investigation was ongoing.

“We are investigating all angles. I have to investigate very carefully and deeply. This is an international issue,” Mazlan said Sunday.

He said the autopsy was being carried out at a hospital after which the body would be released to the family.

In a statement from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the victim’s family said: “We accuse the Mossad of being behind the assassination.”

The Islamist Palestinian movement said Batsh, a research scientist specialising in energy issues, was one of its members.

Mohammad Shedad, 17, a student and a relative of the victim, also blamed Mossad for the killing.

“It is definitely the work of Mossad. Fadi is a very clever person, anyone who is clever is a threat to Israel,” he told AFP outside the victim’s Malaysian home.

“Fadi is a Hamas member and knows how to make rockets. So (Israel) think he is dangerous.”

Batsh leaves behind a wife and three young children. He had lived in Malaysia for the past 10 years. Ahmad Abu Bakar, 33, a foreign student studying in Malaysia, said he had known the victim for two years.

“He is friendly and he preaches good things. He never preached any hatred. I am shocked by the killing,” he said.

Robert Anthony, 56, a security guard at a Chinese primary school near the scene, said he heard the shots ring out but assumed they were “firecrackers”. //AFP

“Asean’s culture of saving face and not touching sensitive issues is no surprise,” said Arthit Thongin, an expert in international security from Rangsit University at a seminar yesterday. “Asean works when it comes to mutual (economic) benefits such as free trade agreements. But when it comes problematic issues, the 10 countries scatter.”

This is also because of the weak democratic atmosphere within Asean, meaning power to manage humanitarian issues falls into the hands of leaders and other authorities.

“They tend to frame this as a topic for the nation-state rather than one of humanitarian interest,” Arthit said.

“Leaders in this kind of regime also tend to cling to the traditional approach of maintaining the status quo rather than addressing democratic values such as human rights,” he said.

International pressure, meanwhile, could not be significantly pushed due to fears that this would weaken Myanmar’s long-awaited elected government and trigger a return of military rule.

Lalita Hanwong, an academic from Kasetsart University’s social science faculty, said that there was currently no mechanism within Asean that could truly address the Rohingya issue. “Asean has problem with legitimacy. Even the term ‘Rohingya’ is not used extensively in the Asean arena,” Lalita said.

The Myanmar government, in which the Tatmadaw, or military, remains influential, uses the term “Bengali” in referring to the Muslim minority, implying that they are from Bengal and not native to the country.

The Tatmadaw commander in chief, Min Aung Hlaing, last year succeeded in convincing the Thai junta government to use the same term in reference to the Rohingya.

The current Rohingya crisis began in August last year with a rebel attack on Myanmar security outposts. Harsh reaction under the Tatmadaw’s clearance operation killed thousands of Rohingya and forced some 700,000 people to flee to Bangladesh. Some of them extended their dangerous journey to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Meanwhile on Friday Washington time, the US State Department released its annual report on human rights practices, which detailed ethnic cleansing, arbitrary and extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and legal restrictions against the Rohingya.

Apart from accounts of massive physical abuses against minorities, the report noted that the Rohingya in Rakhine State faced severe discrimination based on ethnicity as well as exclusion from the political process.

In Asean, the predominantly Muslim countries of Malaysia and Indonesia speak up for the Rohingya, but their domestic agendas are not pursued through Asean mechanisms.

The previous Asean summit, in Manila last year, addressed the AHA centre’s function, but did not discuss the Rohingya conflict at all.

Beijing’s sole aircraft carrier and two destroyer ships carried out “offensive and defensive drills to test their combat muscle” on Friday, China’s navy said on its official microblog site on Weibo.

The exercises took place in an area east of the Bashi Channel, which runs between Taiwan and the Philippines, it said.

China sees democratically-governed Taiwan as a renegade part of its territory to be brought back into the fold and has not ruled out reunification by force.

In Beijing’s latest military drills, photos showed J-15 fighters waiting to take off from the Liaoning aircraft carrier.

The Jinan and Changchun destroyer ships also participated in the training.

Taiwan has accused China of “saber rattling” after Chinese bombers and spy planes flew around Taiwan Thursday, and the Chinese navy conducted live-fire drills off the Taiwan Strait a day earlier.

“China has deliberately manipulated (the exercise) to pressure and harass Taiwan in an attempt to spark tensions between the two sides and in the region,” Chiu Chui-cheng of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council told a regular briefing Thursday.

“(We) will never bow down to any military threat and incentive.”

Beijing has stepped up military patrols around Taiwan and used diplomatic pressure to isolate it internationally since pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen took office.

Chinese President Xi Jinping observed the navy’s largest-ever military display this month in the South China Sea, which involved 76 fighter jets and a flotilla of 48 warships and submarines.

Beijing has also been angered by Washington’s arms sales to Taipei, and China protested last month after President Donald Trump signed a bill allowing top-level US officials to travel to Taiwan.

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979 but maintains trade relations with the island.

But the memos were just the latest twist in a week of awful headlines for Trump: from the release of a bestselling book in which Comey labels him “morally unfit,” to a courtroom circus featuring his embattled personal lawyer and a porn star who alleges a tryst with Trump.

Trump’s legal and personal woes — and wall-to-wall Comey book interviews — overshadowed his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at which the president confirmed CIA chief Mike Pompeo had met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for an upcoming summit with Trump himself.

As the week drew to a close, the flurry of developments on the North Korean front were once again eclipsed by the Comey memos — which depict Trump pressuring the FBI chief over the probe into his campaign’s links to Russia before firing him, and could bolster potential obstruction of justice allegations.

“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?” Trump tweeted Friday in response to the documents.

And to top it off, on Friday the Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in New York alleging the Trump campaign, the Russian government and WikiLeaks conspired to skew the 2016 presidential election toward the Republican.

“We must prevent future attacks on our democracy, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez.

“If the occupant of the Oval Office won’t protect our democracy, Democrats will. ”

– Personal lawyer raided –

Trump’s legal problems reach back to the beginning of his presidency, but have multiplied.

Two weeks ago FBI agents raided the New York residences and offices of his longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, seizing files that could bare Trump’s past business dealings and expose more about his relationships with several women in the 2000s, when he was married.

One of them, the porn actress Stormy Daniels, whom Cohen paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006, showed up to much publicity at the first hearing over the Cohen raid.

Days later she went on the hit show The View where she said she was threatened not to talk about her Trump affair.

Daniels and Trump are now locked in dueling lawsuits that serve to keep the alleged tryst in the headlines.

Separately, Trump is battling a lawsuit that alleges he is breaking anti-corruption clauses in the US Constitution by profiting from the use of his namesake Washington hotel by foreign dignitaries.

Most ominous of all, Trump is under pressure from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into links between his campaign and Russia, a probe that is also examining possible obstruction by the president.

That investigation has numerous top aides and possibly family members of Trump in its sights. In recent weeks, according to reports, Trump has considered firing both Mueller and the Justice Department’s number two, Rod Rosenstein, whom Trump himself appointed a year ago.

In a tweet late on Friday night, Trump wrote: “James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?”

It is not the first time Trump has misspelled the word “counsel.”

– Comey book –

Trump and the Republicans have sought to undermine Mueller’s probe by discrediting him and his team as biased and corrupt.

But Comey’s new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” has deflected questions back to the president. Comey likens Trump to a Mafia boss who demands absolute loyalty, and lacks any moral foundation.

“This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” he writes.

“His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.”

The book, and the memos released by Congress, add support to allegations Trump wanted to suppress the Russia probe and fired Comey because of it.

– Trump expands legal team –

The strain on the White House is clear. On Thursday Trump added three new attorneys, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and two white collar criminal defense specialists.

According to Axios, the Trump team is still seeking to add more firepower to the legal team, and is pitching for Emmet Flood, who represented former president Bill Clinton is his fight against impeachment in 1998-99.

While Trump doesn’t yet face any personal charges, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have warned him he could face impeachment if he fires Mueller.

“We can’t be satisfied,” Itsunori Onodera told reporters in Washington, saying North Korea did not mention “abandonment of short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles”.

He added that Japan will not change its policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang for the “ultimate abandonment of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear arms and missiles”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Saturday that his country would halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches, a move welcomed by US President Donald Trump and South Korea.

Pyongyang’s declaration, long sought by Washington, comes less than a week before Kim meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit, ahead of a much-anticipated encounter with Trump himself.