N. KOREA'S NUKE THREAT
North Korea has threatened to launch "indiscriminate" nuclear strikes against South Korea and the U.S. as the latter kicks off its annual military drill in the Korean Peninsula today.
"If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to a sea of flames and ashes in a moment," the North Korean National Defence Commission said in a statement. The joint U.S.-South Korean exercise — the largest to date, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency — comes amid escalating tensions just days after the UN authorized new sanctions punishing North Korea for its recent nuclear test and missile launch.
EU LEADERS GATHER FOR MIGRANT SUMMIT
As 13,000 refugees and counting are stranded on Greece's border with Macedonia, European Union leaders are gathering today for an emergency summit in Brussels to try and reach a common approach to what the BBC characterizes as "Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II." EU officials will discuss, among other things, closing the route north through Balkan states like Macedonia and how to support Greece, where the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the border is worsening amid concern that children at the encampment are becoming ill, the BBC reports. Also key to the discussions will be Turkey, which EU officials want to take back economic migrants who don't qualify for asylum, in exchange for $3 billion in funding. Meanwhile, yet another boat sank off the Turkish coast yesterday, killing 25 refugees.
SNAPSHOT
Photo: Mark Hume/London News Pictures/ZUMA
British sky watchers were able to enjoy stunning aurora borealis, or northern lights, over the northeast coast at Seahouses, Northumberland.
CLINTON, TRUMP FIGHT TO KEEP LEADS
Sunday night's Democratic debate in Michigan got testy following weekend primary and caucus results showing that the battle isn't yet over between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a Vermont senator, still trails the former secretary of state and first lady in the delegate count, but he picked up wins in three states on so-called Super Saturday. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, billionaire businessman Donald Trump continues to lead, though wins in the states of Maine and Kansas on Saturday by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may set up a head-to-head showdown in the coming weeks. The northern industrial state of Michigan holds its primary tomorrow. Read more from CNN.
FAREWELL NANCY REAGAN
Nancy Reagan, whom President Barack Obama said "had defined the role" of first lady, died at her home yesterday of congestive heart failure. Her death at age 94 comes 12 years after her husband, former President Ronald Reagan, passed away after having lived the last decade of his life with Alzheimer's disease. Read more from The New York Times.
ON THIS DAY
Remember "We Are the World"? And learn when Sunday became our collective day of rest in today's 57-second shot of history.
TUNISIA-LIBYA BORDER CLASHES
Tunisian forces killed 21 Islamist militants early today in Ben Guerdane near the Libyan border, after they attacked police and army posts, sparking fighting in which four civilians and three security personnel also died, AFP reports.
PEYTON MANNING TO RETIRE
Peyton Manning, the Denver Broncos quarterback who led the team to its Super Bowl 50 victory last month, is expected to announce his retirement from the NFL today. Read more here.
TROUBLES IN TURKEY
An estimated 1,250 fighters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed in Turkey's southeast since last July, Hürriyetreports, citing data from security sources. The report comes a day after renewed PKK violence in Idil that left a Turkish soldier dead. Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has called the Turkish regime's recent decision to seize control of opposition daily Zaman, one of the country's largest-circulation newspapers, "unacceptable."
MY GRAND-PERE'S WORLD
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
Restaurant, cell phone and clothes: People usually buy what others appear to want, so companies use the illusion of low supply to create new demand. But there are paradoxes to human instincts and desires, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. "Staged demand is not limited to the USA. In Germany, the fashion label Abercrombie & Fitch, for instance, lets in only a few people when opening new stores. The shops are almost empty, but there are dozens of teenagers waiting outside. And Apple, too, has been repeatedly accused of reducing the supply artificially when launching new products to boost demand. The lines in front of Apple stores, fashion boutiques and cinemas have one message: We have something that everybody wants."
Read the full article, Marketer's Ruse: How To Foment Popularity.
YOUR BOSS WILL OUTLIVE YOU
A new study in France has found that bosses live an average of six years longer than their employees. Though the numbers aren't necessarily surprising, it's as good a Monday reason as any to grumble. Read more from our Le Blog.
