The China Problem

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Column: North Korea is just a part of the challenge confronting Trump and the United States

“I think I understand why that happened,” President Trump said Thursday, reflecting on a change in North Korean behavior that prompted him to cancel a planned summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. When a reporter asked him to elaborate, the president declined.

Allow me to speculate.

Until recently, the prospects of a summit were high. Experiencing the consequences of debilitating sanctions under President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign, Kim Jong Un signaled a new openness. North and South Koreans marched together in the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Kim pledged to suspend missile testing and destroy an already-disabled nuclear facility in advance of talks. And most important, at the beginning of May, Kim freed three American hostages in what Trump would describe as a “beautiful gesture” that “was very much appreciated.”

Then the turn came.

Rise of Iran’s warrior class: Succession in the air with reports of Khamenei’s decline

There are new reports of a sharp deterioration in the health of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini Khamenei [denied as propaganda by the regime].

On March 4, he was reportedly hospitalized in critical condition and has undergone emergency surgery according to sources.

Significantly, the Iranian sources did not mention the success of the operation.

French medical experts were called to Tehran. They reported that Khamenei’s prostate cancer had spread beyond control. On the basis of medical reports, French Intelligence now estimates that the time remaining for Khamenei ranged between imminent death to no more than two years’ life expectancy.