Today's Headlines and Commentary

Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen will face off for the French presidency in the country’s runoff election following the first round of results on Sunday. As in the United Kingdom and the United States, France now faces a contest between one candidate representing support for immigration and international engagement and one rejecting the European Union and all it represents. Fearful that a longshot Le Pen victory could spell doom for the EU, leaders from throughout the bloc have abandoned their usual practice of staying out of domestic politics to offer strong endorsements of Macron, the Washington Post writes. The second round of French voting is scheduled for May 7.

In a phone call with President Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked that the United States show caution toward the North Korean regime amidst rising tensions, the New York Times reports. Xi reportedly emphasized that “all sides exercise restraint and avoid doing things that exacerbate tensions on the peninsula,” indicating fears within Beijing that the next provocation by Pyongyang may tip the region into war. Meeting with a group of U.N. Security Council ambassadors on Monday, Trump stated that the Security Council should be ready to increase sanctions on North Korea. Reuters writes that the administration has not yet decided whether new sanctions should be imposed immediately or whether the Security Council should wait to respond to the next missile or nuclear test from Pyongyang.

Yet despite China’s uneasiness, the Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese state-sponsored hackers launched cyberattacks against South Korean actors involved in the deployment of the THAAD missile system. China has long objected to the U.S. system’s deployment, which Seoul argues is needed to defend South Korea from the North Korean threat. Beijing has denied any involvement in the intrusions against the South Korean entities.

Where in the world is the USS Carl Vinson? Navy Times takes a closer look at how exactly the confusion over the aircraft carrier’s whereabouts originated, as the White House announced that the carrier was steaming toward North Korea while in fact it was headed into the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, North Korea appears to have detained another U.S. citizen, the New York Times writes, bringing the total tally of Americans thought to be held captive by Pyongyang up to three. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular affairs in North Korea for the United States, confirmed the detention of a Korean-American citizen, though the South Korean government could not confirm the reports.

A Filipino lawyer has filed a complaint asking the International Criminal Court to charge President Rodrigo Duterte with mass murder and crimes against humanity, blaming Duterte and 11 other officials for the deaths of over 9,400 people in a campaign of extrajudicial executions. The complaint cites the murders as beginning during Duterte’s time as mayor of Davao City in 1988 and declares that over 4,000 people have been killed since the president took office—a figure twice as high as that recorded by official police statistics. The Times has more.

An American was killed in Ukraine on Sunday in an explosion caused by a landmine in the country’s turbulent east. The U.S. citizen was working as a paramedic for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a monitoring organization, Reuters tells us. Two others were also killed in the explosion.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is aiming to reassure jittery American allies over the course of his ongoing tour through the Middle East, the Journal reports. Mattis has emphasized the Trump administration’s willingness to work with allies on fighting terrorism along with a desire to quell what he sees as Iran’s negative influence in the region.

A Taliban attack killed at least 160 unarmed Afghan soldiers at a military base in the country’s north on Friday, the deadliest yet assault on an Afghan base over the course of Afghanistan’s long-running war. As many as 200 soldiers may have been killed in the strike, which underlines the Afghan military’s precarious situation as the Taliban appears to be gaining power yet again. Two top Afghan military officials have resigned on Monday as the government faces mounting pressure to respond. The Times writes that U.S. officials believe that the attack may have been planned by the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and was likely engineered over a period of months.

Ten off-duty Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush in Iraq’s Anbar province on Sunday, Al Jazeera writes. An Iraqi major blamed ISIS for carrying out the attack.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into connections between Russia and the Trump campaign is moving slowly due partially to committee chairman Senator Richard Burr (R-NC)’s failure to add his signature to letters requesting evidence from the Trump team, Yahoo News reports. The Daily Beast also writes that the investigation lacks full-time staff and is currently staffed only by seven employees working part-time on the investigation. Meanwhile, CNN tells us that ranking committee member Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) is reportedly frustrated by the investigation’s slow pace, though committee member Senator James Lankford (R-OK) disputed claims that the committee’s relative silence on the investigation equated to a lack of progress.

In a wide-ranging interview with the AP, President Trump discussed his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the crisis in North Korea, and what appear to be his changing views on NATO, among many other things. Read the transcript here.

ICYMI: This Weekend, on Lawfare

Quinta Jurecic posted the Lawfare Podcast, featuring a talk by Justice Department prosecutor Mona Sedky on sextortion.

In the Foreign Policy Essay, Yuri Zhukhov explored Russia’s new role in the Middle East.

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