NATION&WORLD

JILL COLVIN AND DARLENE SUPERVILLE

Associated Press

TOKYO — All the pomp and pageantry in the world couldn’t paper over the tensions between President Donald Trump and Ja-pan’s Shinzo Abe on two of their most pressing issues: North Ko-rea and trade.

The president and prime min-ister tried mightily to minimize their differences during Trump’s four-day state visit to Tokyo, while playing up their close per-sonal friendship and their coun-tries’ long-held ties. But tension abounded, with Trump on Mon-day brushing off the significance of North Korean short-range missile tests that have rattled Japan and reasserting his threats to hit Abe with potentially devas-

tating auto import tariffs.Asked if he was bothered by the

missile tests, Trump said: “No, I’m not. I am personally not.” Abe, in contrast, said the missile tests were “of great regret.”

The conflict demonstrates the limits of Abe’s long-term strat-egy of showering Trump with affection in hopes of extracting benefits. Trump appeared unin-terested in concessions despite a program tailor-made for the president that included a showy visit with the new Japanese em-peror, a round of golf and prime seats at a sumo tournament where Trump got to present a “President’s Cup” to the winner.

Trump also demonstrated again that he is willing turn his back on long-held norms as he assailed Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic hopeful whom North Korean leader Kim Jon Un recently criticized as having a low IQ.

“I don’t take sides as to who I’m

in favor or who I’m not,” Trump said when asked whether he was favoring a violent dictator over the former vice presi-dent. “But I can tell you that Joe Biden was a disaster.”

Indeed, Trump also sided with Kim on the question of whether the short-term missile launches violated U.N. Security Council resolutions, as both Abe and U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton stated.

“My people think it could have been a violation,” said Trump. “I view it differently. I view it as a man — perhaps he wants to get attention and perhaps not. Who knows?”

Meanwhile, an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday called Bolton a “war monger” and “hu-man defect” after his comments

on the recent tests of short-range missiles.

Bolton told reporters in Tokyo on Saturday that there was “no doubt” that North Korea’s recent missile launches violated U.N. resolutions, and that sanctions against the North must be kept in place.

Japan has long voiced concern about short-range missiles be-cause of the threat they pose to its security. Kim’s decision to lift the pause in ballistic missile launches that began in late 2017 alarmed North Korea’s neighbors.

Most analysts believe the missiles were ballistic missiles, which are not allowed under U.N. resolutions.

Trump’s visit to Japan was de-signed to highlight the U.S.-Ja-pan alliance and showcase the warm relations between the two leaders. Trump said he and Abe deliberated over trade, Iran and more during hours of talks at Akasaka Palace.

LORI HINNANT

Associated Press

BRUSSELS — France’s pro-EU president and the leader of Italy’s euroskeptic, far-right movement jockeyed for the role of chief pow-erbroker on the continent Monday after elections to the European Parliament hollowed out the tra-ditional political middle.

The four days of balloting that drew to a close Sunday across the European Union’s 28 countries ended the domination of the main center-right and center-left par-ties in Parliament and established the anti-EU forces on the right and the environmentalists on the left as forces to be reckoned with.

Voters delivered the highest turnout in 20 years, rejecting main-

stream politics in France, Germany, Britain and Italy.

The results could make the business of governing Europe even trickier, leaving the Parlia-ment deadlocked over key issues to come, including immigration, a major trade agreement with the United States, global warming, regulation of the tech industry and, of course, Brexit.

The outcome is already setting off a power struggle.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron’s party narrowly lost to the French far-right, led by Marine Le Pen. Macron, whose party was poised to secure 21 seats to 22 for Le Pen’s National Rally, spent Monday busily amassing allies ahead of a summit today in Brussels, hoping to build a durable pro-EU coalition.

In Italy, Matteo Salvini’s right-wing League party won a third of the country’s vote and is poised to become one of the biggest parties in the European Parliament with 28

seats in the 751-seat legislature. But his ambitions reached higher.

By midday, he already spoke to Le Pen, Hungary’s hardline anti-im-migrant prime minister Viktor Or-ban, and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage. He promised to singlehand-edly bring together a contradiction in terms — an international group of nationalists.

The center-right European Peo-ple’s Party and the center-left So-cialists & Democrats dominated the parliament with a combined majority since direct elections were first held in 1979. With results still coming in , the EPP was on track to secure 180 seats, down from 217 five years ago. The Socialists were slated to win 145, down from 187.

Riding what they called Europe’s “green wave,” environmentalist parties seeking action on climate change made strong gains, notably in Germany. Another mainstream formation, the free-market ALDE group backed by Macron, saw its

stake in the Parliament rise to 109 seats, from 68 in 2014.

For the Parliament to choose a European Commission president and ultimately to pass legislation, new and uncomfortable alliances must be forged, and almost all will require some combination of ALDE and the Greens.

Well aware of the far-right’s po-tential to turn against itself, Ma-cron launched a flurry of meetings ahead of the dinner summit today where the EU countries’ presidents and prime ministers will take stock of the election results.

He started with Spain and was due to hold talks with the leaders of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

“The future majority of the Eu-ropean Parliament goes through us, without question. There isn’t one without us,” Pascal Canfin, one of the leading candidates from Ma-cron’s party, told France Inter radio.

European leaders gather allies

ARON HELLER

Associated Press

JERUSALEM — Israel’s parlia-ment on Monday passed a prelim-inary motion to dissolve itself. The move further pushed the country toward an unprecedented politi-cal impasse, less than two months after elections seemed to promise Prime Minister Benjamin Net-anyahu a new mandate.

If the bill receives final passage in a vote scheduled for Wednesday, Israel would be forced to hold new elections — sending the political system into disarray.

Netanyahu appeared to have a clear path to victory, and a fourth

consecutive term, after the April 9 elections. His Likud party emerged tied as the largest party in the 120-seat parliament, and with his traditional allies, he appeared to control a solid 65-55 majority.

But he struggled to form a gov-ernment ahead of a looming dead-line. His prospective coalition was thrown into crisis in recent days by former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an ally and sometimes rival of Netanyahu’s.

Netanyahu delivered a prime-time statement Monday calling on his potential partners to put “the good of the nation above every other interest” to avoid sending

the country once again to “ex-pensive, wasteful” elections. He placed the blame on Lieberman for creating the crisis, but said he was hopeful his efforts to salvage a compromise in the next 48 hours would succeed.

Lieberman has insisted on pass-ing a new law mandating that young ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the military, like most other Jewish males. Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies demand that the draft exemptions remain in place.

Without the five seats of Lieber-man’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, Net-anyahu cannot muster a majority.

“The draft law has become a symbol and we will not capitu-late on our symbols,” Lieberman defiantly said, vowing to press for new elections if his demands are not met.

Netanyahu and Lieberman met Monday evening in a last-ditch ef-fort to find a compromise. Israeli media said the meeting ended without any progress.

Ultra-Orthodox parties con-sider conscription a taboo, fear-ing that military service will lead to immersion in secularism. But years of exemptions have gen-erated widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis.

Israeli election repeat possible due to draft argument

DIGEST

Trump donation

under scrutinyWASHINGTON — Real estate

mogul Franklin Haney contrib-uted $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural com-mittee and all he’s got to show for the money is the glare of a federal investigation.

The contribution from Haney, a prolific political donor, came as he was seeking regulatory approval and financial support from the government for his long-shot bid to acquire the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama. More than two years later, he still hasn’t closed the deal.

Haney’s donation to Trump’s inaugural committee is being scrutinized by federal prosecu-tors who are investigating the committee’s finances.

Their probe is focused in part on whether donors received benefits after making contri-butions.

Forces push forward

in Libyan capitalCAIRO — Heavy clashes have

been slowly nearing the center of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, as forces loyal to the military com-mander Khalifa Hifter battle to seize power, an official and res-idents said Monday.

Hifter opened a military of-fensive on the Libyan capital of Tripoli in early April despite commitments to move toward elections in the North African country.

Libya is divided between Hifter, whose self-styled Lib-yan National Army controls the east and much of the south, and Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, who runs the U.N.-sup-ported but weak government in Tripoli.

BRIEFLY

TRIAL: A newspaper over the weekend reported U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California acknowledged taking a photo with a dead combatant during his time as a Marine as he de-fended Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was charged with war crimes, including killing a teenage fighter. The Republican congressman, who was re-elected last November as he faces corruption charges, made the comments during a town hall Saturday in his San Diego-area district.

VIOLENCE: Sunday proved the most violent day of the long holiday weekend so far in Chi-cago, with 18 people shot, ac-cording to police and Chicago Tribune records. As of noon Monday, thirty-six people had been shot since Friday after-noon. In 2018, 39 people were shot, seven fatally, during the long weekend that serves as the unofficial start to summer, which in Chicago often means heightened violence.

BORDER: A leader with the group that’s been raising funds to build a southern border wall on its own said Monday they erected less than a mile of wall on private land in New Mex-ico over the weekend. Dustin Stockton, co-founder of the nonprofit WeBuildtheWall Inc., expects it’ll cost up to $10 mil-lion. The government’s cost for the new walls it’s building is about $22 million a mile.

KNIFE ATTACK: A man swing-ing a knife attacked commut-ers waiting at a crowded bus stop just outside Tokyo during Tuesday morning’s rush hour, wounding at least 19 people, including 13 children, Japanese authorities said. Media reports said that two people were killed, though the local fire department reported one death.

EVEREST: Christopher Kulish, 62, of Colorado, died shortly after getting to the top of Mount Everest and achieving his dream of scaling the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, his brother said Monday. About half a dozen climbers died on Ever-est last week. Most are believed to have suffered from altitude sickness.

AUSTRIA: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was ousted by parliament in a no-confidence vote Monday, paving the way for a new election. The young leader, riding high in popular support, defiantly vowed that he and his center-right People’s Party would return to power with increased strength.

— Lee wire services

Despite overtures,

Abe and Trump see

Kim’s threat differently

Voters turned to right

and left extremes,

upending status quo

N. Korea is still a divideUS DIPLOMACY | JAPAN

Trump

RICHARD VOGEL, ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEMORIAL DAY A TIME FOR SOMBER REMEMBRANCE, THANKSMatthieu Martinez comforts his father Ceaser Martinez on Monday as he weeps over his brother’s grave on Memorial Day at the Veterans National Cemetery in Los Angeles. Rodrigo Martinez was killed in action in Iraq in 2004. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence paid tribute to fallen members of the U.S. armed forces Monday, thanking their loved ones in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and acknowledging that for them “every day is Memorial Day.” Dignitaries attending the ceremony included Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. and acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. President Donald Trump, in Japan, spoke to troops aboard a battleship before returning to the U.S.

TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2019