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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, May 17, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 3088 ~ 45 of 55
that Harry and Markle are deeply committed to each other.
“They’re very serious about their relationship and that’s why I think they particularly want to see it
grounded in a religious ceremony, in a Christian ceremony,” he said.
Doubts about whether Markle’s father would come to the wedding surfaced earlier in the week when
TMZ reported he would not come because he was embarrassed by reports that he had staged photos showing him being measured for his wedding suit. That story also included a report that he had suffered a recent heart attack.
The drama surrounding Thomas Markle, and harsh comments about the bride made by estranged mem- bers of her extended family who were not invited to the wedding, have dominated British tabloid coverage of the royal wedding.
Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine on Thursday castigated Harry’s Kensington Palace press operation for not doing more to prevent Markle’s relatives from sniping at her.
“Could they not have taken at least a few steps to get them on-side?” she said. __
Katz reported from London. Danica Kirka in London also contributed.
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For complete AP royal wedding coverage, visit https://apnews.com/tag/Royalweddings
US has a daunting to-do list to get ready for NKorea summit By CATHERINE LUCEY, ZEKE MILLER AND MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Who sits where? What’s on the agenda? Will they eat together? What’s the se- curity plan?
President Donald Trump and his team have a daunting to-do list to work through as they prepare for next month’s expected summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump’s plan to meet with Kim may have come as a surprise decision, but his team hopes to leave nothing to chance when they come together in Singapore. They’re gaming out policy plans, negotiating tactics, even menu items.
With two unpredictable leaders, it’s hard to anticipate every possibility. But White House aides are expecting hard-ball negotiating tactics — already in evidence this week as the North Koreans cast fresh doubt on the sit-down.
The president said Thursday that preparations were underway: “Our people are literally dealing with them right now in terms of making arrangements for the meeting.”
The two sides, he said, “are continuing to negotiate in terms of location, the location as to where to meet, how to meet, rooms, everything else. They’ve been negotiating like nothing happened.”
Leader summits on this level are a massive undertaking. Much like icebergs, only a small fraction of the work is visible above the waterline. And when the meeting involves the heads of two technically still-warring states, the list of logistical concerns expands, including sensitive items like the number and deployment of security officers. Officials on both sides are still determining the format for the meeting or meetings, whether Trump and Kim will share a meal, and the extent of any one-on-one interactions.
All of that comes as the U.S. formulates its strategies for the talks, including what the U.S. is prepared to give up and how precisely to define “denuclearization” on the Korean Peninsula — Trump’s stated goal. “I would say there are hundreds if not thousands of hours put into summit preparations,” said Patrick McEachern, a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a former State Department official. Scott Mulhauser, a former chief of staff at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said that in the leadup to summit meetings, staffs try to anticipate the various negotiating positions their counterparts might take, adding
that “if you’re not gaming that out, you’re not preparing adequately.”
Trump is relying heavily on his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, in preparing for the summit. Pompeo has
met with Kim twice in Pyongyang, once as secretary of state and once as CIA chief, and has spent more time with the reclusive leader than any other American official. The amount of face time Pompeo has had