President Trump's controversial announcement that the U.S. would cease its "very provocative" and "very expensive" joint military drills with South Korea is causing some confusion on Capitol Hill.
After his summit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump said the U.S. would stop its "war games" on the Korean peninsula. The U.S. regularly participates in military exercises with South Korea, which Kim has characterized as a "provocation" from the two nations. But Trump's announcement immediately sent government officials scrambling: U.S. troops said they hadn't heard anything about ceasing their exercises, and South Korea's government said it was seeking to "find out the precise meaning or intentions" of Trump's promise.
Even Vice President Mike Pence proliferated the post-summit chaos. Pence met with Republican members of Congress to try and fill them in on what Trump agreed to with Kim, but left some lawmakers more confused than ever. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) said that Pence was "very clear" in telling GOP leaders that regular military exercises would in fact continue, despite Trump's announcement. Others said there was no clear answer in how the U.S. military would move forward.
Finally, Pence's office told some reporters that the biannual exercises would come to an end, but "routine exercises" would continue. The White House has yet to publicly clarify what, precisely, Trump's promise to decrease U.S. military presence in the region will look like. Summer Meza
About 170 migrants are missing and feared dead after two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean this week.
Three survivors of one wreck rescued by an Italian naval helicopter on Friday said they'd been on a ship with about 120 people which began sinking after leaving Libya Thursday. A 2-month-old baby was among the passengers. Another 53 people who sailed from Morocco are also missing, though at least one person from that boat was rescued.
"We cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europe's doorstep," said a statement from the United Nations' refugee agency. "No effort should be spared, or prevented, from saving lives in distress at sea." Bonnie Kristian
Local authorities by Saturday evening had revised their estimate of deaths in a Friday explosion at a Mexican fuel pipeline to 73, with another 74 people injured in the blast and more still missing.
The death toll was initially put at 21 but quickly rose. Casualties are high because a crowd of hundreds of villagers had gathered in hopes of collecting free gasoline after the pipeline was punctured by fuel thieves. Gas stations in the area have been rationing gasoline because of fuel shortages, and word of the spill from the pipeline spread quickly.
"I trust in the people, and I know that with these painful, regrettable lessons, the people will also distance themselves from these practices" of fuel theft, said Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who visited the site of the tragedy Saturday. Bonnie Kristian
When BuzzFeed News approached Peter Carr, spokesman for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, for comment on Thursday's explosive report, Carr was not told the full scope of what BuzzFeed planned to publish, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Emails from BuzzFeed reporters say they have "a story coming stating that Michael Cohen was directed by President Trump himself to lie to Congress about his negotiations related to the Trump Moscow project." The emails do not mention reporting that Mueller's office had collected document evidence and a confession from Cohen. Carr's denial of the BuzzFeed story the next day was delayed by the special counsel's office's efforts to independently verify BuzzFeed's claims, the Post reports.
BuzzFeed again stood by its reporting in a second statement Saturday. "As we've re-confirmed our reporting, we've seen no indication that any specific aspect of our story is inaccurate," the statement said. "We remain confident in what we've reported, and will share more as we are able."
Read the full Washington Post story here. Bonnie Kristian
