Li (Cindy) Yang, a Florida Chinese-American entrepreneur who founded (then sold) the massage parlor where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was allegedly caught paying for sex, didn't just watch the Super Bowl with President Trump last month. She also started a consulting business in 2017 offering Chinese business executives access to Trump, including at his private Mar-a-Lago club, Mother Jones reported Saturday. On Sunday, Mother Jones said Yang is also an officer in local chapters of two clubs with ties to China's Communist government.

The website for Yang's business, GY US Investments LLC, went offline Friday after the Miami Herald reported Yang's ties to Trump, as did her Facebook page with photos of her posing with Trump, Trump family members, Cabinet secretaries, and other boldface Republican politicians. But an archived version of GY's site offered "the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce, and other political figures," at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington. "If the posted photos are authentic, she has been able to get Chinese clients at least into the Trump circle for a quick pic," Mother Jones says.

"It remains unclear how much Li Yang charged for the services and whether she was ever hired to provide them," The Associated Press cautions, but "patrons attending a Republican National Committee dinner at Mar-a-Lago last year noticed a large contingent of Chinese attendees."

Selling Chinese business executives access to the president of the United States at his private club and other venues raises serious ethical, campaign finance, and national security concerns. And Yang, who emigrated from China about 20 years ago, showed no demonstrable interest in politics until the 2016 election, when she and her family began donating more than $58,000 to a pro-Trump PAC and Trump's campaign.

The White House declined to comment on Yang's business. Yang told the Herald "she and her family have never broken the law, but did not answer questions about whether she knew of the allegations that therapists in her spas were offering sex. She added that she was out of the business, would soon be moving to Washington, D.C., and didn't want any negative press." Peter Weber

President Trump on Monday called for the removal of Japan's trade barriers, wanting to put U.S. companies "on a fair footing in Japan," Reuters reported.

"We have an unbelievably large imbalance, as you know, trade imbalance with Japan for many, many years, Japan having the big advantage," Trump said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump, who is making a four-day state visit to Japan, tweeted on Sunday that he expected that any major decisions on trade would be made after Japan's upper house election in July.

Abe also indicated a willingness to discuss trade, saying that both leaders had agreed to speed up their trade talks; but he didn't provide any information on the timing of a potential deal.

Trump and Abe have also discussed the current trade war with China and North Korea's recent missile tests, topics to which the two leaders seem to have different approaches. Read more at Reuters. Shivani Ishwar

President Trump responded early Monday morning to a tweet made by foreign policy expert and NYU political science professor Ian Bremmer.

Bremmer on Sunday tweeted a fake quote attributed to the president, which he later deleted after backlash from journalists, political analysts, and Twitter users everywhere. Bremmer attempted to justify his fake tweet before deleting it, saying that the quote was "kinda plausible" and that that was "the point."

(Screenshot/Courtesy Mediaite)

Trump fired back early Monday morning, panning the "age of Fake News" and the news media. "People think they can say anything and get away with it," Trump tweeted.

Trump, who has 233 statements rated as false on PolitiFact, called for libel laws to be modified to hold journalists accountable. But it's unclear whether he has the power to do so, Fox News reported. In response to Trump's earlier calls to change libel laws, Brian Hauss, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that "the president does not have the authority" to change libel laws, since they fall under state, rather than federal, jurisdiction.

Read more at Fox News. Shivani Ishwar

Preliminary results of the European Union parliamentary elections show that nationalist parties gained significant ground in the U.K., France, Italy, and Poland. Parties like Britain's Brexit party, led by Nigel Farage, and France's National Rally party, led by far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen, took the most votes in their home countries.

However, Reuters reported, these victories in individual countries still didn't "dramatically alter the balance of pro-European power in EU assembly." Pro-Europe groups, including the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and the Greens/European Free Alliance party, held strong with 504 out of the 751 available seats in Parliament. The EU's new priority will be "the search for a majority," as no single party took enough seats to hold a simple majority.

Europeans managed to sharply buck the norm of low voter turnout at EU Parliament elections. This time, 51 percent of eligible voters cast their vote, the highest turnout in 20 years. Back in 2014, that figure was only 43 percent. But renewed nationalist sentiment, along with its opposition, seems to have invigorated European voters enough to reverse the trend of "falling participation since the first direct EU vote in 1979."

Read more at Reuters. Shivani Ishwar

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, gave a lengthy interview for ABC's This Week which aired on Sunday. While Buttigieg is usually known for his measured opinions, the 37-year-old mayor was a little more fiery during his conversation with Martha Raddatz. Here are three standout moments.

On the military — Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan, was highly critical of President Trump's ideas about the military. First, he doubled down on his comments that Trump faked his bone spurs to avoid serving in Vietnam, calling it "an assault on the honor of this country." He later added that Trump's potential pardoning of soldiers accused of war crimes "undermines the foundations of this country."

North Korea negotiations aren't working — While Buttigieg is a fan of diplomacy, he doesn't fully agree with Trump's tactics regarding North Korea. In fact, he thinks the main thing Trump accomplished was legitimizing a rogue state.

His experience comes from his office, not his age — Buttigieg often gets questioned about his youth and lack of experience in Washington. But he argues that his job as mayor might prepare him even more for the presidency than serving in Congress would. "You can be a very senior member of Congress and have never in your life managed more than 100 people," he said. Tim O'Donnell

Bart Starr, a Hall of Fame quarterback known for guiding the Green Bay Packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls ever in 1967 and 1968, died on Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama. Starr had battled numerous health issues in recent years, including two strokes, a heart attack, and several seizures. He was 85.

Starr and the Packers won three other NFL championships before the Super Bowl began, giving him five titles in a decade — a feat not even Tom Brady can claim. Starr also won the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1966.

In a team press release, the Packers described Starr as "maybe the most popular player" in franchise history. He is also known for his game-winning quarterback sneak to beat the Dallas Cowboys in the 1967 NFL championship, a memorable game dubbed the "Ice Bowl" due to the frigid winter temperatures in Green Bay.

"While he may always be best known for his success as the Packers quarterback for 16 years, his true legacy will always be the respectful manner in which he treated every person he met, his humble demeanor, and his generous spirit," his family said in a statement. Tim O'Donnell

Sumo wrestling and trade negotiations make for an unlikely combination. But Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is hoping the two mesh well.

During his visit to Japan on Sunday, President Trump presented a special "President's Cup" trophy to the winner of a sumo wrestling tournament, one of Japan's most significant cultural institutions. The winner, Asanoyama, became the first recipient of a winner's trophy awarded by a United States president.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump sat in ringside armchairs during the bouts, The Guardian reports, as opposed to the traditional form of viewership — sitting cross-legged on thin cushions.

The gesture, orchestrated by Abe, is widely viewed as a diplomatic attempt to flatter Trump as the two countries gear up for trade negotiations, which Trump tweeted would likely develop more fully after Japan's elections in July.

In the short term, at least, it appears Abe made the right call — Trump seems to have enjoyed the moment. Tim O'Donnell