Free Republic

Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, traveled to Pyongyang on Tuesday under the direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaling a deepening of strategic military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. The visit, Shoigu's second in less than two weeks and third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in just three months, comes as Moscow seeks to draw Pyongyang closer in its protracted war effort in Ukraine. Observers say the visit suggests a bid by Russia to leverage shifting global attention — particularly the West’s growing preoccupation with escalating tensions between Israel and Iran — to secure...

President Trump rejected rightwing pundit Tucker Carlson’s criticism that he is abandoning America First principles with his support for Israel amid its military campaign against Iran. Carlson, an ardent Trump ally, fumed at Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran last week, dubbing the US “complicit in the act of war” and arguing that, “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.” Trump said he wasn’t familiar with Carlson’s critique but contended that, as a pioneer of the modern America First movement, he’s the final arbiter of what it means...