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China has reopened passenger train service to North Korea, ending a long COVID-era shutdown and boosting cross-border travel

Jihadi extremist groups, including Boko Haram and one of its factions, have been blamed for intensified attacks targeting Nigeria's military bases in the northeast of the country in the last week.

The appointment of a new ayatollah shortly after the death of Ali Khamenei highlights a major shortcoming in Donald Trump's plot for Iranian regime change, an analyst wrote Tuesday.Despite the president's team carrying out a series of strikes against the Middle Eastern country earlier this month, the only changes made so far, according to CNN analyst Stephen Collinson, are beneficial to Iran. Trump may have succeeded in removing the country's former head, but his replacement, Collinson believes, is far worse for the US and the current administration. He wrote, "No one from the outside can know its true state after days of aerial pounding of government facilities and heavy loss of life."But so far, the operation has succeeded only in replacing an aged supreme leader — who was already close to his eternal rest and had no succession plan — with a younger version with the same last name."The choice of Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his martyred father as supreme leader was a signal of defiance from the theocracy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that rule Iran with an iron fist. It remains unclear how Khamenei will be able to consolidate power in such extreme circumstances."Trump has also failed to take into account the activity needed from the Iranian people to successfully topple and ultimately replace the regime, Collinson argued. "There’s no outward sign that the uprising of Iranians against their corrupt and repressive rulers that Trump sought to trigger is about to materialize," he wrote. "Perhaps US and Israeli attacks on Iranian economic and energy infrastructure could so weaken the regime’s foundation that a revolt could materialize in the months and years ahead, even if the clerics cling on for now."But this requires Iranian civilians taking to the streets against ruthless security forces pining for revenge following the US onslaught. "Only weeks ago, thousands were killed in a previous thwarted uprising. It seems just as likely that the unintended result of the war will be more repression rather than a flowering of freedom."Trump may also be forced to play his hand sooner than he had hoped. Collinson wrote, "Trump also faces pressing strategic dilemmas. Will he use force to try to open the Strait of Hormuz — the world’s vital oil conduit, which has been all but closed by Iran? "And would the survival of the regime lead to an almost permanent state of simmering warfare between the US and Israel and Iran that requires regular escalations to prevent the Islamic Republic rebuilding its threat?"

Travel operators say Chinese and North Koreans can now buy tickets for services leaving this weekPassenger train services between China and North Korea are to resume this week, six years after their suspension because of the Covid-19 pandemic, travel operators have said.Train journeys between the two countries were halted in 2020 as strict border closures were imposed to prevent the virus spreading. Continue reading...

As speculation mounts that Kim Jong-un and Trump could meet this month, analysts say Pyongyang will continue to see nuclear weapons as a matter of survivalMiddle East crisis – live updates North Korea’s launch last week of a missile from a naval destroyer elicited an uncharacteristically prosaic analysis from the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The launch was proof, he said, that arming ships with nuclear weapons was “making satisfactory progress”.But the test, and Kim’s mildly upbeat appraisal, were designed to reverberate well beyond the deck of the 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel the Choe Hyon – the biggest warship in the North Korean fleet. Continue reading...

A terrorism analyst on Monday explained how the United States-Israel war against Iran might have activated sleeper cells and has concerned law enforcement. Alex Plitsas, counterterrorism program director for the Atlantic Council, told CNN anchor Jake Tapper that recent attacks had suggested increased activity among terrorist sleeper cells. Plitsas cited the attempted attack Saturday by two men charged with using weapons of mass destruction and supporting the Islamic State after throwing a bomb near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Gracie Mansion, in addition to two other recent terrorism-related incidents — the attack on a nightclub in Austin, Texas, and a bombing outside the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway. He also described a new report that revealed an encrypted transmission was intercepted by the U.S., which has prompted concern among security experts and law enforcement.Tapper asked Plitsas how worried he was about the recent attacks. "Significantly concerned," Plitsas said. "You know, not that there's a particular plot that I'm aware of and not to be alarmist for folks who are listening, but let's we can kind of walk through some of the facts that we that have come out and come to light recently about why I would make that comment. So there's been three cells that have been arrested in Qatar, in the UK and Azerbaijan over the last week that were affiliated with the IRGC, the Quds force — that's Iran special operations folks — that have an external cell that were engaged either intelligence collection or surveillance and preparation, likely for sabotage or terrorist operations. We saw a bombing outside of the U.S. embassy in Oslo. We still don't know who was responsible for that. And then there was reporting that came out earlier today that code words appear to have been intercepted where the Iranians may have activated sleeper cells globally amongst their IRGC folks or potentially Hezbollah. And so they've been known to have folks slip in and out of the United States, intelligence officers from Iran in covert status who have been in the United States conducting surveillance on targets who have also attempted to contract hitmen in some cases you know, there was a plot against President Trump himself."He also mentioned how these operations had targeted others. "There's a very famous female dissident who lives in Brooklyn, they were attempting to assassinate her as well," Plitsas said. "They've become exceptionally bold in recent years. And this all sort of came to light during the Obama administration when it was revealed and disrupted that they were looking at actually bombing a restaurant in Washington at one point, where the Saudi ambassador was said to have been eating. So the threat is real. And as Iran gets further backed into a corner and its military capabilities are further degraded, there's a possibility it could turn to asymmetric threats." Plitsas argued there could be more attacks and that law enforcement would continue investigating. "And as we like to say in the business, you know one time is an instance, two times a coincidence, three times is hostile enemy action," Plitsas added. "We had three cells arrested this week, a bombing outside Oslo. And then potential chatter now about sleeper cells being activated. So the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) and speaking to contacts within the FBI and law enforcement community are actively monitoring and aggressively pursuing any leads that are out there right now, including with international partners. So confidence in the efforts are federal law enforcement along with their local partners, have but they only have to be right once, and we have to be right every time."

The U.S. Department of Defense insisted that its military forces had "only just begun to fight" as President Donald Trump insisted that the war in Iran was "very complete."Trump made the statement during a phone interview with CBS correspondent Weijia Jiang on Monday."I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they've got no Air Force," the president was quoted as saying, noting that the U.S. was "very far" ahead of its plans for a 4 to 5 week war.Meanwhile, on Monday, the "Department of War Rapid Response" X account shared a meme reading "No Mercy.""We have Only Just Begun to Fight," the caption added.

President Donald Trump claimed in a new interview what he thinks will come next for the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran as reports surfaced about a conversation Monday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the president. CBS Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang reported that Trump said in a phone interview that the war in the Middle East could be ending soon. It's unclear when the conflict was expected to end. “I think the war is very complete, pretty much," Jiang wrote about the conversation with Trump via X. "They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force.” Trump also said that the "U.S. is 'very far' ahead of his initial 4-5 week estimated time frame," Jiang added. The president also reportedly had a phone call with Putin, according to Reuters chief national security reporter Phil Stewart in a post on X, and "shared his proposals aimed at a quick settlement to the Iran war, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. The leaders also discussed the Ukrainian conflict and the situation in Venezuela in the context of the global oil market situation, Ushakov said."Trump was slated to address press questions about the war on Monday afternoon.