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Week In The News: Afghan Bomb, United Scandal, Spicer Blunder

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Tillerson face-to-face with Putin. Sean Spicer’s Hitler blunder. Turbulent times for United Airlines. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

This undated photo provided by Eglin Air Force Base shows a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, the U.S. military's largest non-nuclear bomb, which contains 11 tons of explosives. The Pentagon said U.S. forces in Afghanistan dropped a GBU-43B on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan. (Eglin Air Force Base/AP)
This undated photo provided by Eglin Air Force Base shows a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, the U.S. military's largest non-nuclear bomb, which contains 11 tons of explosives. The Pentagon said U.S. forces dropped a GBU-43B on an Islamic State target in Afghanistan. (Eglin Air Force Base/AP)

More bombs this week, and one really big one: the “mother of all bombs” dropped by the U.S. over Afghanistan. President Trump says very, very successful. On the Korean peninsula, crackling tensions. War talk around North Korea. In Washington, Sean Spicer wrestles with comments on Hitler and gas. In Moscow, Rex Tillerson says bad times with Russia. And in Chicago, United Airlines has a passenger dragged off its plane in a video that has blanketed the world. Up next, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for the Washington Post. (@ktumulty)

Kathy Gilsinan, senior editor at the Atlantic, where she oversees global news. (@kgilsinan)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

From Tom’s Reading List

Washington Post: Trump promised an ‘unpredictable’ foreign policy. To allies, it looks incoherent. -- "In interviews over the past few weeks with a half-dozen foreign ambassadors based in Washington, most complained — diplomatically, of course — that thin lines of communication have made it difficult for them to explain U.S. intentions to officials in their home capitals. That is creating strain on traditionally solid alliances, they said."

The Atlantic: North Korean Nukes and the Grand International-Relations Experiment in Asia -- "Let’s start with North Korea’s explanation for its missile program. It argues really that it is defensive and it doesn’t want to intimidate anyone else, except as that’s necessary for its defense. And after all, the U.S. had threatened to drop nuclear bombs on [North Korea] during the Korean War, and has implicitly or explicitly made nuclear threats in periods of tension. Secretary Tillerson has just threatened a pre-emptive strike, and while we see this only as a last-ditch defensive measure, I’m sure North Korea sees it quite differently."

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Drops Its Largest Nonnuclear Bomb on ISIS Tunnel Complex in Afghanistan — "The U.S. military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal Thursday on an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan, the Pentagon said."

This program aired on April 14, 2017.

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