Globe Trot: The wisdom of pingpong over Pyongyang

NORTH KOREA: The commander of the USS Carl Vinson Pacific carrier strike group said its deployment is being extended 30 days “to provide a persistent presence in the waters off the Korean Peninsula” as tension builds between Washington and Pyongyang over Kim Jong Un’s missile test-firing.

“The Trump administration, having looked at the options, is speaking out of both sides of its mouth, which, if done deliberately, is good policy,” said Patrick Cronin, an Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security.

Uncertainty in North Korea also looms over its long-suffering church, once considered the “Jerusalem of the East.”

INDONESIA: Jakarta’s embattled Christian governor, Ahok, has failed to win reelection as his blasphemy trial continues. From Twitter user Daniel Ziv: “Indonesia may never see a political leader as clean as Ahok again. And perhaps doesn’t deserve one. A very dark day.”

UGANDA ends the hunt for rebel LRA leader Joseph Kony. Here’s some background on the long-running conflict that has terrorized Africa.

TURKEY: In Sunday’s long-watched referendum, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan narrowly gained enough votes to widen executive powers, but calls for referendum annulment are growing after Erdogan refused to allow recounts in highly contested areas.

FRANCE: With voting set to begin Sunday, a growing bloc of traditionally left-leaning gay voters has embraced far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, leader of the once-fringe National Front party.

ENGLAND: The Allied powers were aware of the scale of the Jewish Holocaust 2 1/2 years earlier than is generally assumed and had even prepared war crimes indictments against Adolf Hitler and his top Nazi commanders—action that possibly could have saved millions and millions of lives.

CANADA: How in the world has this Winnipeg couple kept the darkness away, waiting decades for a verdict in their daughter’s murder? By deciding to forgive.

“I want to live,” she said. “If we had waited for justice 32 years ago, can you imagine where we’d be? We would just have put our whole lives on a shelf. And we have two other children, so we’ve had to say, you know what, this is good. All of life is good.”

IRAQ AND SYRIA: My book, They Say We Are Infidels, is out this week in paperback with a new chapter on some of the events taking place since military action began last year to expel Islamic State (ISIS).