| When should one be 'honored' to meet a dictator? Asking for a friend |
| No foreign leader has ever met with North Korea's brutal dictator Kim Jong Un. And Kim hasn't left his country since taking power in 2011. So it was huge news Monday when President Trump said that he's open to meeting with Kim. "I would be honored to do it ," he said, "under the right circumstances." Relations are tense between the two countries. Days ago, Trump said a "major, major conflict" with North Korea was possible over the hermit nation's nuclear and missile programs. But Trump also said he wants to solve things diplomatically, and on Sunday called the third-generation ruler "a pretty smart cookie ." Kim isn't the first controversial foreign leader Trump has reached out to. His fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin is well known, and he recently invited to the White House controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose war on drugs has left more than 8,000 dead in just nine months. |
| SpaceX launches secret mission, sticks the landing |
| The launch broadcast went dark a few minutes into the flight — that's how secretive Monday's SpaceX mission was. A classified U.S. spy satellite was sent out of this world from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 7:15 a.m. ET. Ending the broadcast to preserve secrecy is standard practice during National Reconnaissance Office missions such as this. What camera's did show was a successful launch, and then spectacular footage of the 15-story Falcon booster flipping around and firing several engines to fly back to a pad several miles south of the launch site. Recovering and re-using rockets may be key to drastically cutting launch costs, said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The triumphant Falcon touchdown was announced with a flurry of sonic booms that rippled across the region. Nailed it! |
| Spoiler alert: This horse already won the Kentucky Derby |
| It doesn't matter which horse wins the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Patch — the one-eyed horse who, ironically enough, was named before events unfolded with his left eye last June — is this year's feel-good story . "If you watched him train and didn't know that he had one eye, there's no indication of him doing anything peculiar in his training or in his races that would make you concerned about the one eye," Patch's trainer, Todd Pletcher, said. Currently at 40-1 odds, Patch is the underdog. "He's just going to have to buck some trends." But even if he loses, he's won in our hearts. |
| Food news that's interesting in non-related ways |
| • McDonald's unveiled a "uselessly useful" utensil called a "frork" Monday in a hilarious infomercial. That's right, a fork to eat French fries. We don't need it, but now we really want one. We'll store it next to our cookie-dipping utensil. |
| • What does fiber taste like? It tastes like Coke. Or maybe Diet Coke, according to our taste test. That's because the soft-drink juggernaut launched Coca-Cola Plus in Japan for all your digestive needs. |
| • If you thought antibiotics taste "just like chicken," you were right. But times are changing. Tysons Foods joins competitors like Perdue and Pilgrim's Pride and will remove antibiotics from its chickens by the end of the year. Look for more natural everything in your supermarket. |
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| Monday's #mustread unveils devastating practice of human sacrifice |
| In Uganda, witch doctors and believers kill and offer body parts — especially of children — to dark spirits to get rich, heal diseases, mitigate misfortunes, forestall impending events or even help their favorite candidates win elections. |
| Let 'em breathe, Lord. In the name of Jesus, give 'em breath.' |
| A violent storm system has killed at least 15 people over a wide swath of the nation, but a baby and toddler are alive thanks to fast-acting strangers in Texas. In a heart-wrenching video , we see and hear a range of emotions from these Good Samaritans who rescue a father and two young children from an overturned vehicle submerged in water. Both children were resuscitated. A woman is heard praying for the children as someone else performs CPR: "Dear Jesus, please let this baby breathe." The storm, producing tornadoes and flooding in some states, claimed lives in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. It caused heavy snow in other states and heads for the East Coast Monday evening. It's been a disastrous and costly start to the year for weather. |
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| This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY. |
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