U.S. officials are mulling the possibility of launching a military strike against North Korean targets without provoking war on the Korean Peninsula, the Wall Street Journal reports.
It's been dubbed the "bloody nose" strategy: "React to some nuclear or missile test with a targeted strike against a North Korean facility to bloody Pyongyang’s nose and illustrate the high price the regime could pay for its behavior," per the Journal.
Why it matters: There would be a large risk of North Korea striking back with full force if provoked. And U.S. officials are considering the strategy in the middle of planned diplomatic talks between North and South Korea — the first sign of thawing tensions in two years.
Vice President Mike Pence is kicking off his Middle East trip starting January 19 after delaying it to stay in Washington for the tax code overhaul vote last year.
What he’ll discuss on the trip: National security, and in particular, “the shared need to combat terrorism and assist persecuted religious minorities.”
By the end of this week, by law, President Trump has to decide whether to waive economic sanctions against Iran. He'll also have to decide whether to certify that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. But the antigovernment protests in Iran that the Trump administration supports are giving the administration a political conundrum.
The dilemma: Trump spent much of his first year in office threatening to pull the U.S. out of the nuclear deal, which he could do by reimposing economic sanctions against Tehran. But if he does that, foreign policy experts say, he risks shifting the spotlight away from the protests rather than encouraging them.
Jared Kushner maintains strong financial ties to Israeli companies, despite his role as the White House point man on Middle East peace, the New York Times reports.
Kushner's business dealings "don’t appear to violate federal ethics laws," per the Times, but may raise questions about the ability of the U.S. to be an impartial mediator between Israel and the Palestinians — a debate already fueled by President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The details: Israeli insurance company Menora Mivtachim has invested $30 million in the Kushner family's real estate business. The Kushners' company has also struck deals with "one of the country’s wealthiest families and a large Israeli bank that is the subject of a United States criminal investigation," the Times reports.
"China has embarked on history’s most expensive foreign infrastructure plan. Under the Belt and Road Initiative, it is building bridges, railways, and ports in Asia, Africa, and beyond."
CIA Director Mike Pompeo told Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace that President Trump's tweet on nuclear buttons is "entirely consistent with what we are trying to communicate."
