Here are links to select stories on the internet today.
North Korea agrees to freeze missile tests, hold summit, Seoul says
Chung added that Pyongyang also expressed willingness to talk to the United States “in an open-ended dialogue to discuss the issue of denuclearization and to normalize relations with North Korea.” Chung said that as part of the dialogue, the two Koreas would hold a summit next month, the first of its kind in more than a decade.
Russian spy mystery deepens as daughter confirmed as second victim
Sergei Skripal — a 66-year-old former military official from Russia who was convicted of spying for the UK — and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia, who was visiting him from Russia, are critically ill in a UK hospital after “suspected exposure to an unknown substance” Sunday.
It’s the dawn of Mueller’s March madness
How else to explain a staggering, reality TV-style meltdown of short-lived Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg on Monday, played out in a batch of cable news interviews, marking the oddest twist of the Russia saga yet?
Billionaire explorer discovers sunken US WWII aircraft carrier
Wreckage from the USS Lexington — a US aircraft carrier sunk by the Japanese during World War II — has been discovered 500 miles off the Australian coast by a team of explorers led by billionaire Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder announced on Monday.
France to set age of sexual consent at 15 after rape outcry
Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said the government “has decided to set the age at 15,” after consultations with the public and an expert panel. She said a new law would be presented to Council of Ministers — France’s equivalent of a cabinet — on March 21.
There’s a wild soap opera playing out at the Trump hotel in Panama
On Monday, hotel workers pried the letters “T-R-U-M-P” off of the Panama City hotel known as the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel. It was the latest gambit in a high-profile squabble between the Trump organization and Orestes Fintiklis, a Miami-based investor who owns the majority of the units in the hotel.
Bugatti unveils even faster Chiron Sport at Geneva Motor Show
But Bugatti just unveiled a new version at the Geneva Motor Show that’s engineered to do even better on the track. The Bugatti Chiron Sport has just as much power as the standard car — 1,500 horsepower via a 16-cylinder engine and four turbochargers.
Oldest message in a bottle found on beach
A Perth family has found the world’s oldest known message in a bottle, almost 132 years after it was thrown into the sea, Australian experts say. Tonya Illman picked up the bottle while going for a walk around sand dunes on a remote beach in West Australia.
Russian plane crash in Syria ‘kills 32’
A Russian military plane has crashed in Syria killing 26 passengers and six crew members, the defence ministry says. The transport plane crashed during landing at Khmeimim air base, near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, Ria Novosti news agency reports.
Johnson warns Russia over spy collapse
The UK would respond “robustly” to any evidence of Russian involvement in the collapse of former spy Sergei Skripal, Boris Johnson has said. Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, in her 30s, are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Sunday.
Lego admits it made too many bricks
Too many Lego bricks is a problem many parents will sympathise with, but now the toy firm itself has admitted it has made too many. The company said sales and profits had fallen for the first time in 13 years, blaming the weak performance on having to sell off excess stock cheaply.
Trump slumps on Forbes billionaires list
US President Donald Trump has fallen 222 places on the Forbes annual Rich List, after his estimated worth of $3.5bn (£2.5bn) fell to $3.1bn. The magazine said the drop was partially due to a fall in the value of central New York property values and falling revenues at his golf courses.
Katy Perry’s Friend From Middle School Surprises Her On ‘Jimmy Kimmel’
Katy Perry got quite a surprise Monday on ” Jimmy Kimmel Live!”: an old friend who shared some funny memories of the singer. In a game to set up the exchange, Kimmel showed Perry a grid of six faces and asked her to identify which one was a person from her past.
Bill And Melinda Gates Pledge $170 Million To Women’s Economic Empowerment
Everything changes when women have money. That’s the gist of what philanthropist Melinda Gates says in an op-ed published Monday in Quartz, in which she announced that she and her husband, Bill Gates, are pledging $170 million to help empower women economically around the world.
Trump Administration Reverses Promise To Ban Elephant Hunt Trophies
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has quietly begun allowing more trophy hunting of African elephants, despite President Donald Trump ‘s pledge last year to uphold a ban on importing parts of animals killed by big-game hunters. The agency issued a formal memo Thursday saying it would consider issuing permits to import elephant trophies from African nations on a “case-by-case” basis, effective immediately.
Reddit Says It Expunged Hundreds Of Russian Propaganda Accounts
Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only social media platforms that have been infiltrated by Russian propaganda. Reddit, America’s fourth-most popular site, admitted Monday that it’s been a target, too. CEO Steve Huffman said in a Reddit post that the social news site had identified and removed “a few hundred” Russian propaganda accounts.
More tech companies sue FCC over net neutrality
The internet isn’t letting net neutrality disappear without a fight. Several big tech companies, including Etsy, Expa, Kickstarter, Automattic, Foursquare, and Shutterstock, filed a petition on Monday with the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to end net neutrality.
YouPorn used AI to predict the porn searches of the future and, um, brace yourselves
Using artificial intelligence to create new content is all the rage, and now YouPorn has gotten in on the act with an experiment that’s produced some truly weird results. Neural networks are hot stuff these days having been used for fun things like writing bad Christmas carols and horror stories.
