Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones for a third day on Wednesday forcing most of the Russian capital’s airports to close just as Chinese President Xi Jinping was due to arrive to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian air defense units destroyed at least 14 Ukrainian drones from 10 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) on Tuesday until Wednesday morning. Moscow’s key airports remained out of operation for most of the night, and Russian national carrier Aeroflot said it was reordering timetables to cope with the disruption. Twenty-nine world leaders, including Xi, are expected to attend World War Two Victory Day commemorations in Moscow in the coming days, according to the Kremlin. Military units from 13 countries, including China, will take part in the parade. Xi is due to start a four-day visit to Russia on Wednesday, giving President Vladimir Putin an important diplomatic boost at a time when the Russian leader is keen to show his country is not isolated on the world stage. Xi, whose country is locked in a tariff war with the United States, is expected to sign numerous agreements to deepen the already tight “no limits” strategic partnership with Moscow, which has consistently seen China crowned Russia’s biggest trading partner. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II, including many millions in Ukraine, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945. For Russians — and for many of the peoples of the former Soviet Union — May 9 is the most sacred date in the calendar, and Putin, angry at what he says are attempts by the West to belittle the Soviet victory, has sought to use memories of WWII to unite Russian society.

HONG KONG — Sotheby’s has postponed the auction of a collection of ancient gems linked to the Buddha’s remains after the Indian government threatened legal action and demanded their repatriation. The auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha has been postponed “with the agreement of the consignors,” three descendants of the British colonial landowner who excavated them, Sotheby’s said in a statement Wednesday. “This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate,” the auction house said. India had slammed the planned auction of the gems, which William Claxton Peppé dug up on his northern Indian estate in 1898, as offensive to the world’s 500 million Buddhists and a violation of Indian and international law and United Nations conventions. The Piprahwa gemstones, part of a dazzling cache of more than 1,800 artifacts that are now mostly housed at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, are named after the town in what is now the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where they were buried in a stupa, or funerary monument, around 200 to 240 B.C. The gems were said to be enshrined on top of the existing cremated remains of Buddha, who died around 200 years earlier, and many Buddhists believe they are imbued with his presence. The 334 gems had been scheduled to go on sale Wednesday in Hong Kong, where Sotheby’s put them on display in a public exhibition. They were expected to sell for about 100 million Hong Kong dollars ($12.9 million). Secured in three glass cases and surrounded by a trove of other Buddhist artifacts, the display included shimmering penny-sized silver and gold-leaf stars embossed with symbols, along with pearls, beads and flowers cut from precious stones, including amethyst, topaz, garnet, coral and crystal. “Nothing of comparable importance in early Buddhism has ever appeared at auction,” Sotheby’s said on its website, which was no longer promoting the sale Wednesday. In a letter dated Monday and shared online, the Indian Culture Ministry said the gems were sacred relics that were “not separable from the remains they accompany,” according to Buddhist theology and archaeological standards. “To separate and sell them violates religious doctrine and international ethical norms for handling sacred remains,” the letter said. Buddhist scholars and religious leaders also condemned the sale. At the time of the discovery, the British Crown claimed the find under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act, giving the bones and ashes to Buddhist King Chulalongkorn of Thailand. But the Peppé family was allowed to keep a fifth of the relics, and they have been passed down for generations. “I hope they will go to someone who really values them,” Chris Peppé, Peppé’s great-grandson, wrote in a February piece for Sotheby’s accompanying the auction catalogue. The Indian government said that Peppé, a TV director and film editor based in Los Angeles, lacked authority to sell the gems and that by facilitating the sale, Sotheby’s was “participating in continued colonial exploitation.” It said that if Peppé no longer wished to have custody of the gems, they should be offered first to India. Peppé did not respond to a request for comment. He told the BBC that his family had explored the possibility of donating the relics but had run into obstacles and that an auction seemed to be the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists.”

For more than a decade, travelers at New Zealand’s Wellington Airport have been greeted by two Hobbit-themed sculptures of giant, hovering eagles, one of which carried wizard Gandalf. Suspended from the roof by cables, the two towering figures were unveiled in 2013 to promote director Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” and Hobbit films, which were filmed in New Zealand over 15 years. Each eagle weighs more than a ton and has a 50-foot wingspan, with a total of 1,000 feathers. The majestic birds originally served as rescuers and fighters in the fantasy adventure films, which are based on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. The pair will say their last goodbye to visitors Friday and “fly off into the sunset,” making space for a new display, the airport said Monday. The eagles’ departure will be “the end of an era,” Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke said. “It’s not unusual to see airborne departures from Wellington Airport,” Clarke said in a statement. “But in this case, it will be emotional for us.” Though the sculptures have been a “huge success,” admired by travelers from around the world, it’s the “right time for them to fly the nest,” he added. Some travelers said they were saddened by the birds’ departure. “It breaks my heart,” Verity Johnson told The Associated Press on Monday as she sat beneath a grasping eagle claw in the food court. “Please reconsider. Please bring them back, make them stay,” she said. Another passenger, Michael Parks, said taking the eagles away would be “un-New Zealand.” The eagles will be disassembled overnight Friday and placed into storage. The long-term plans for them are still to be decided. They were made by Wellington-based Wētā Workshop, which created tens of thousands of props for Jackson’s films, including armor, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry. One of them fell down when a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand’s North Island in 2014, but no one was injured, according to The New Zealand Herald. The airport is working with Wētā Workshop on a “unique, locally themed replacement” for the eagles, Clarke said, to be revealed this year. The magnificent New Zealand scenery showcased in the movies has drawn millions of international tourists, with the airport’s eagle sculptures turning into an iconic feature. The films generated more than $770 million in international tourism revenue for New Zealand, contributing to a welfare gain of over $180 million for the country’s households, research found. Another sculpture of Smaug the Magnificent — the great dragon that torments Bilbo Baggins and his fellow travelers — will remain in the check-in area, where it was installed in 2014.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — An American mountaineer died on Mount Makalu in eastern Nepal during a climb to raise funds for a children’s cancer program, officials said Tuesday, the second death in the Himalayan nation’s climbing season that began in March. The world’s fifth-highest mountain, Makalu’s peak is 28,000 feet high — almost as tall as Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak at a height of 29,032 feet. Alexander Pancoe, 39, died Sunday while settling into his sleeping bag at the mountain’s second high camp, after returning from an acclimatization trip at the higher camp three, expedition organizer Madison Mountaineering said. “Alex suddenly became unresponsive,” the company said on its website. “Despite hours of resuscitation efforts ... they were unable to revive him.” Nepal’s tourism department said it was arranging to bring the body to Kathmandu, the capital. Pancoe, who survived a brain tumor when younger, had completed the Explorer’s Grand Slam — climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents and then skiing to both the North and South Poles. He had been battling chronic myeloid leukemia and was attempting to climb Makalu to raise funds for the pediatric blood cancer program of the Chicago-based Lurie Children’s Hospital, said expedition leader Garrett Madison. He had already raised $1 million to help fund clinical trials and other programs there, Madison added. In April, a Nepali sherpa died on Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th-highest mountain. Wedged between India and China, landlocked Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and its economy is heavily reliant on climbing, trekking and tourism for foreign exchange.

MANILA, Philippines — A World War II-era Philippine navy ship to be used as a target in a combat exercise by American and Philippine forces accidentally sank Monday hours before the mock assault, prompting the drill to be canceled, U.S. and Philippine military officials said. The BRP Miguel Malvar, which was decommissioned by the Philippine navy in 2021, took on water while being towed in rough waters facing the disputed South China Sea and sank about 30 nautical miles off the western Philippine province of Zambales. Nobody was onboard when the ship listed and then sank, the Philippine military said. American and Philippine forces proceeded with other live-fire maneuvers off Zambales on Monday despite the premature sinking of the Malvar. The ship was built as a patrol vessel for the U.S. Navy in the 1940s and was transferred to Vietnam’s navy before the Philippine military acquired it, Philippine navy Capt. John Percie Alcos said. “It’s an 80-year-old dilapidated ship and it wasn’t able to withstand the rough seas,” Philippine Lt. Col. John Paul Salgado told The Associated Press. The ship-sinking exercise was planned in an offshore area facing the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal, which has been closely guarded by the Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships. The Philippines also claims the fishing atoll, which lies about 137 miles west of Zambales. Chinese and Philippine forces have had increasingly hostile confrontations in the waters and airspace of Scarborough in recent years. The canceled ship-sinking drill would have been the third to be staged by the treaty allies in recent years. It was supposed to be one of the highlights of large-scale annual military exercises by the United States and the Philippines from April 21 to May 9 with about 14,000 U.S. and Filipino troops participating. Called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, the combat drills have increasingly focused on the defense of Philippine sovereignty in the face of China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. Mock battle scenes that have been staged so far, including the retaking of an island from hostile forces, have reflected assurances by the Trump administration, including by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that the U.S. would abide by its treaty commitment to defend the Philippines in case Filipino forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea. On Sunday, U.S., Australian and Philippine forces practiced retaking an island from hostile forces in the coastal town of Balabac in western Palawan province, which faces the South China Sea. Japanese forces and British marines joined as observers of the combat exercise, which “showcased the growing interoperability and cohesion among partner nations in maintaining regional security,” Salgado said. “What we have seen since Trump returned to the White House is a remarkable level of continuity in the U.S.-Philippines alliance not only in joint military drills, but also on American statements that the alliance is ‘ironclad,’” said Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation. “The Trump administration is trying to keep the pressure on China through its support to the Philippines,” Grossman said. But he added that it is unclear “just how sustainable this commitment will be given that the Trump administration seems less hawkish on China than its predecessors.” China has vehemently opposed such exercises involving U.S. forces in or near the South China Sea or Taiwan, the island democracy, which Beijing claims as a province and has threatened to annex by force if necessary. U.S. and Philippine military officials, however, have insisted that the combat exercises were not designed with China in mind but serve as a deterrence to acts of aggression in the region.

Australia’s incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has won a second term in a close general election Saturday, local broadcasters projected, in a defeat for the conservative coalition that was undermined at the ballot box by its association with President Donald Trump. The Labor Party pulled ahead of the conservative Liberal-National coalition, led by Peter Dutton, with the Australian Electoral Commission’s early projections suggesting at least 70 of the 150 House seats for Labor, according to the Australian broadcaster ABC. “Not the night we wanted,” Dutton said at his party headquarters, adding that he had congratulated Albanese on his win. Independent candidates and minor parties are projected to take about 13 seats in parliament, which means Albanese may have to form a coalition if the final count shows that his party ultimately falls short of a parliamentary majority. Concerns among Australians over the soaring cost of living and the lack of affordable housing dominated the election at a time when interest rates remain high. Geopolitical relations with China, Australia’s largest trading partner, were also front of mind for voters. But voters in this election were more concerned by Trump’s shake-up of the global order with a new trade regime that slapped a 10% tariff on all Australian exports to the U.S. A survey published Wednesday by Australian think tank the Lowy Institute found that over 60% of Australians did not have any level of trust in the U.S. to act responsibly. Albanese, 62, rose to the top job in 2022, ending nine years of conservative rule. Spotlighting his working-class credentials, his party in this election promised tax cuts, help for young homebuyers, and a pledge of $5.5 billion more for health care. Until recently, the Australian leader faced the prospect of becoming the country’s first single-term prime minister in almost a century, bogged down by high inflation, a slowing economy, and a housing crisis put into sharp relief by Albanese’s ill-timed purchase of a multimillion-dollar cliff-top home. After Trump’s inauguration in January, Dutton, 54, who was leading the polls against his rival Albanese, saw a turnaround in popularity after many of his party’s campaign promises, including on immigration, were seen as widely emulating Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In the lead-up to the election, Liberal Party insiders told Reuters that the anti-Trump sentiment was spurring risk-averse voters to move away from Dutton at the ballot box. Trump had been “a wrecking ball” for Australia’s conservative coalition, said Andrew Carswell, the former press secretary to Liberal Party Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who lost office in the previous election, according to Reuters. Albanese, meanwhile, refrained from mentioning Trump on the campaign trail, instead telling voters on Monday, “The last thing you need is a volatile government.” He has avoided direct criticism of the president in favor of a security alliance with the U.S., though he was notably absent from Trump’s inauguration and has yet to visit Washington. A YouGov poll released on Thursday predicted a Labor majority, saying the party would likely win up to 85 seats in the 150-seat lower house, with the opposition facing a net loss of 11 seats, which would be its worst performance since 1946. Albanese’s win comes after Canada’s election earlier this week saw Prime Minister Mark Carney stage a major political comeback, fueled by a backlash against Trump’s comments on making Canada the 51st U.S. state. Australia is one of a few countries where voting is compulsory for all citizens ages 18 years and older. Around 4.8 million of 18 million eligible voters began casting their votes as early as Thursday, with most postal votes expected to be counted after election day.

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party won another landslide in Saturday’s general elections, extending its 66-year unbroken rule in a huge boost for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong who took power a year ago. The Election Department announced the PAP won 82 Parliamentary seats after vote counting ended. The party had earlier won five seats uncontested, giving it 87 out of a total 97 seats. The opposition Workers Party maintained its 10 seats. The PAP’s popular vote rose to 65.6%, up from a near-record low of 61% in 2020 polls. Jubilant supporters of the PAP, which had ruled Singapore since 1959, gathered in stadiums waved flags and cheered in celebration. “We are grateful once again for your strong mandate. We will honor the trust you have given to us by working even harder for all of you,” Wong said in a speech earlier to his constituency before the full results were out. Eugene Tan, a law professor at the Singapore Management University, said the opposition’s failure to make further inroads after 2020 was a surprise. “Singapore voters played their cards close to their chest. Today, they indicated that their trust is with a party that has delivered over the years,” he said. A U.S.-trained economist who is also finance minister, Wong’s appeal for a resounding mandate to steer trade-reliant Singapore through economic turbulence following U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes has hit home. The government has lowered its growth forecast and warned of a possible recession. Wong, 52, succeeded Lee Hsien Loong to become the city-state’s fourth leader. Lee stepped down in May 2024 after two decades at the helm but remained in the Cabinet as a senior minister. His retirement as premier ended a family dynasty started by his father, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first leader, who built the former colonial backwater into one of the world’s richest nations during 31 years in office. The PAP is seen as a beacon of stability and prosperity, but tight government control and the rising cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities also has led to growing unhappiness, especially among younger voters. Widening income disparity, increasingly unaffordable housing, overcrowding and restrictions on free speech have loosened the PAP’s grip on power. The opposition says giving it a stronger presence in Parliament will allow a more balanced political system and greater accountability. But they face an uphill task, often hamstrung by a lack of resources, fragmented support and a lack of unity. Critics said gerrymandering also gives the PAP an advantage. Pritam Singh, leader of the Workers Party, acknowledged it was a tough contest and vowed to continue the fight for a more balanced Parliament. “The slate is wiped clean, we start work again tomorrow, and we go again,” he said. While the Workers Party failed to expand its presence, it had consolidated its support with increased share vote in some areas, said Southeast Asia political analyst Bridget Welsh. Other smaller opposition parties however, failed to make a breakthrough. Welsh said voters opted for stability amid concerns over global volatility due to sweeping U.S. tariffs. Wong’s more approachable leadership in engaging younger voters and efforts to renew PAP by bringing in about a-third of new faces also helped swung votes, she said. “I call this the Wong and Trump effect,” she said. “The issue of economic insecurity really did reinforce his mandate.”

MANILA — On a balmy night outside Manila’s Baclaran church, Gerald Concepcion, 32, and his fellow devotees were decorating a float of the Virgin Mary with fragrant lilies and pink carnations. He added artificial white doves to the arrangement, saying they were in honor of the late Pope Francis, who had led a radical shift in the Catholic Church’s treatment of LGBTQ people. “Pope Francis is a testament that God is alive,” Concepcion, a devout Catholic who works as a street vendor, told NBC News. “He accepted everyone, including us gay people who have long been marginalized.” Francis’ death on April 21 has opened the eternal tension between choosing a successor that represents continuity, or one who will bring change, including a possible return to the church’s recent past of more conservative positions on issues like homosexuality. Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino cardinal often dubbed the “Asian Francis” for his emphasis on poor and marginalized people, has emerged as a possible leading contender, or papabile, when the conclave meets on May 7 to elect Francis’ replacement. If chosen as pope, Tagle could carry with him some lessons from the Philippines. Despite being the biggest Catholic nation in Asia — about 80% of Filipinos are Catholic — and the third-largest in the world, it is also one of the more LGBTQ-friendly countries in the region. Many gay Catholics, like Concepcion, remain active and visible members of the church, and he says Tagle offers the possibility of continuing Francis’ embrace of gay Catholics into the next papacy. “Being gay is not wrong because we were also created by God and all things that God created are beautiful,” Concepcion added. The Philippine Catholic Church has become more open to gay Catholics in recent years, including in a 2024 position paper in which the church acknowledged the LGBTQ community’s “important role in the life of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.” And while Tagle, who is known for avoiding provocative rhetoric and controversial issues, has rarely spoken publicly about homosexuality in his statements and homilies, he has lamented the church’s “harsh words” in the past about gay and divorced people. Filipino Catholics say they have felt supported by some of his actions and see them as potential signs of his approach to the community if he were to be elected pope. Edwin Valles, former president of Courage Philippines, an LGBTQ organization under the Archdiocese of Manila, says he is certain that Tagle would continue embracing the gay community. In 2014, Valles said he approached Tagle, then head of the Archdiocese of Manila, to request a priest to be assigned to guide their members, a request Tagle granted. “It’s a commitment on his part,” Valles said. “He puts money where his mouth is. So I like to think that he will also do the same if and when he becomes pope.” Valles tells a story from a 2018 event they both attended, when a young faithful asked the cardinal about the status of LGBTQ Catholics. “And his answer was something like: All of us are Catholics, all of us are parishioners, all of us are children of God. So why make that label and distinction? That just serves to separate or put people in boxes,” Valles recalled Tagle saying. A man of the people The Jesuit-educated Tagle, 67, was born to a Filipino father and a Filipino Chinese mother who were both bankers, and Tagle grew up in a well-to-do family. He was ordained as a priest in 1982 at the age of 24, and like Francis, adopted a simple life. From 2001 to 2011, he served as the bishop of the Diocese of Imus, a city south of Manila, and his hometown. There, Tagle took to walking the streets, greeting street vendors and motorcycle taxi drivers. Residents affectionately recalled how Tagle would sit on a wooden bench outside a humble neighborhood barbershop, Bible in hand, his presence so regular that it earned Roland, the shopkeeper, the nickname, “Holy Barber.” Tagle then became Manila’s archbishop in 2011 and was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. In 2015, he was elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the humanitarian and development organization of the Catholic Church, and was re-elected again in 2019. That year, he moved to the Vatican after Francis appointed him head of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the church’s missionary arm. He would fly back to the Philippines, unannounced and without fanfare, to check on his ailing parents, have his hair cut by Roland, and make surprise visits to neighbors and relatives eager to receive a blessing from a cardinal back home from the Vatican. He ‘does not possess a prophetic voice’ Tagle is highly respected in the Philippines, where he is widely perceived as “warm, gentle, approachable, humble and at times funny,” just like Francis, Noel Asiones, an academic researcher from the University of Santo Tomas, a Catholic university in Manila, told NBC News. As a top cleric, Tagle’s pastoral approach “reflects a leader eager to serve and emphasize meeting the needs of his flock,” Asiones said. But the similarities seemed to end there. Unlike Francis, who spoke with forceful, moral authority on worldly issues like exploitative capitalism or the injustices of war, Asiones said, Tagle “lacks or does not possess a prophetic voice.” Tagle has been criticized for his inaction on sexual abuse by priests, and his silence on the extrajudicial killings ordered by the Philippines’ former President Rodrigo Duterte, in a crackdown on drugs that left tens of thousands, including children, dead. Duterte openly attacked and threatened the church, which in the Philippines has historically stood up against political power. In the face of the flagrant human rights abuses, however, Tagle responded with statements Duterte’s opponents criticized as vague and unchallenging. “I don’t think Tagle will be entirely Francis 2.0. For one, he opts for political correctness, often avoiding confrontational language, and seems reticent, if not afraid, to hold truth to power,” Asiones said. A good theologian, but a poor administrator Tagle has had significant experience in the Vatican, but observers say it has been far from stellar. In 2022, Francis dismissed Tagle and the rest of the leadership team of Caritas Internationalis after a Vatican-led audit found “real deficiencies” in management and procedures. What the Roman Curia needs is a pope who is also a good administrator, said Charles Collins, managing editor of Crux, an international publication focusing on the Catholic Church. “Tagle is considered intelligent, a good theologian and a good communicator. But in many ways he has not been a very good administrator in some of the jobs he’s had in the Vatican,” Collins said. “He has not proven himself in that role.” Francis had shaken things up in the Vatican and the cardinals may look to someone who could provide stability to replace him. “I think the conclave is going to look at a European cardinal to become pope,” Collins said. Three issues are expected to hound the next pope: clerical abuse, poor finances of the Vatican and the ongoing cultural war between progressives and conservatives. Tagle might be one of the more popular papabili, but Collins cautioned that in every conclave, “there are always people who are being promoted more in the media than among the cardinals.” “A pope from Asia or Africa is a good news story, but that does not reflect the views of the cardinal electors.”

Authorities in India are investigating reports that a dead snake in a public school lunch caused dozens of children to fall ill. More than 100 students became sick in the northeastern town of Mokama last week, the country’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement Thursday. A school cook reportedly served the food to about 500 children after removing a dead snake from it, the commission said, citing reports from local media. The NHRC has demanded that local police provide a “detailed” report of the incident within two weeks, which is expected to include the health status of the affected children, the statement added. If the reports are true, the case would be a serious "violation of the human rights of the students,” the commission said, adding that villagers, angered by the reports, had blocked a road in protest. In a bid to combat hunger, India rolled out a cooked Mid Day Meal Scheme in 2001 that provided a free lunch for children in public schools for at least 200 days a year, according to the country’s Ministry of Education. The school food program is the world’s largest, covering over 113 million children ages 6 to 10, according to some estimates. Food safety complaints related to school meals are not uncommon in India. In 2013, at least 23 children were killed by a free school lunch contaminated with concentrated pesticide. The students fell ill within minutes of eating rice and potato curry, vomiting and convulsing with stomach cramps.

SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Sunday in a show of force, days after North Korea test-launched cruise missiles to demonstrate its counterattack capabilities. The arrival of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group at the South Korean port of Busan was meant to display a solid U.S-South Korean military alliance in the face of persistent North Korean threats, and boost interoperability of the allies’ combined assets, the South Korean navy said in a statement. It said it was the first U.S. aircraft carrier to travel to South Korea since June. The deployment of the carrier is expected to infuriate North Korea, which views temporary deployments of such powerful U.S. military assets as major security threats. North Korea has responded to some of the past deployments of U.S. aircraft carriers, long-range bombers and nuclear-powered submarines with missile tests. Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again to revive diplomacy. North Korea hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s overture but alleged U.S.-led hostilities against North Korea have intensified since Trump’s inauguration.