Globe Trot: North Korea tops Trump agenda with China’s president

NORTH KOREA: A top North Korean official is selling lithium—a byproduct of processing advanced nuclear weapons—out of North Korea’s embassy in China, a further suggestion that the rogue nation is on its way to becoming an advanced nuclear power. As U.S. President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping in Florida this week, his top agenda item will be pressing China to sanction North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.

Brookings has a helpful new report on the global non-proliferation regime and where North Korea stands.

VENEZUELA: Troops in armored vehicles were called in over the weekend to block demonstrators in Caracas protesting the Nicolás Maduro government’s court-led takeover of Congress, the only government institution controlled by the opposition.

Regional powers are breaking their silence on Venezuela’s slide into dictatorship as the Organization of American States meets today.

ECUADOR: A right-leaning hopeful appears to have lost yesterday’s second-round presidential election against the leftist Lenin Moreno and his Alianza Pais party, which has held power for more than a decade.

IRAQ: From this rare perch inside an Iraqi Army helicopter, it’s clear ISIS fighters are using children as human shields in Mosul.

SUDAN: You’ll want to listen to all three parts of this interview with Petr Jasek, the Czech worker with Voice of the Martyrs imprisoned for more than a year in Khartoum and released last month.