On the surface, it may have seemed purely symbolic: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin unveiled a statue honoring the North Korean troops who helped Russian forces repel a Ukrainian incursion in Kursk.

But as Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports, there could be much deeper significance for Moscow as it looks to Pyongyang for help amid a sputtering advance in Ukraine and indications that its pace of operations in the theater has slowed.

It’s unclear what Mr. Kim and Mr. Volodin discussed behind closed doors in Pyongyang, but a new deployment of North Korean troops may have been on the agenda. As many as 13,000 North Korean troops fought against the Ukrainians in Kursk between November 2024 and April 2025.

And here’s why Russia may need more North Koreans: According to one senior officer from a NATO army who visited South Korea recently, Ukrainian troops are now killing Russians faster than Moscow can replace them.

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it will leave OPEC, the global oil cartel that organizes production among some of the world’s largest oil producers.

Emirati officials have complained for years that OPEC’s quotas have limited their export capacity and limited their industry’s growth. They said the decision aims to speed up investment in its energy sector and address the country’s long-term economic needs.

But the context and timing are key. The decision comes after Iran, another OPEC member, closed the Strait of Hormuz, further limiting the UAE’s oil exports. The U.S.-Iran war — and Iran’s subsequent attacks on the oil infrastructure of neighboring Gulf states — is rapidly reshaping the energy politics of the region.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao is likely to be under a microscope with top White House officials, key lawmakers and other stakeholders watching his every move after he took over the post following former Navy Secretary John C. Phelan’s surprise ouster last week.

Military Correspondent Mike Glenn is tracking Mr. Cao’s first few days on the job. Mr. Cao addressed the Navy in a brief video posted to social media over the weekend in which he said his most critical mission is taking care of sailors, Marines and their families.

After that, he said, the top priority is shipbuilding and ramping up the Navy’s fleet. Mr. Phelan faced White House pressure for failing to meet ship production deadlines, including commissioning a new class of battleships by 2028. The White House will be pushing behind the scenes for Mr. Cao to accelerate those shipbuilding initiatives.

For more background on this, a recent episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast unpacked the failures of American shipbuilding and some potential fixes.

Washington Times reporter Stephen Dinan has the latest on the legal battle over journalists’ access to the Pentagon. A federal appeals court on Monday allowed the Pentagon to reinstate its ban on reporters entering the building without an escort, marking at least a temporary victory for Mr. Hegseth.

To recap, here’s how we got here: Last year, the Pentagon restricted access for news outlets that refused to abide by new government reporting rules. A judge then struck down that new policy, which prompted the Pentagon to announce a broader ban on all journalists entering the main building without an escort, citing safety reasons.

A lower court judge said the new ban violated his initial order — but the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that’s not true. It said the broader ban was a new policy that should have been treated as such by the lower court.

This is hardly the end of the story, as the saga continues to unfold. It’s another example of how Mr. Hegseth has upended the Pentagon’s relationship with a host of major Washington institutions, including the media. 

The details of a deal don’t matter, nor should the U.S. put any stock in what Iran may say during negotiations with the Trump administration. Tehran wants a nuclear weapon, period, and that remains the Islamic republic’s primary motivation, writes Don Feder in a Times op-ed.

Mr. Feder, a consultant and Coalitions Director of the Ruth Institute as well as a Times columnist, likens Iran’s approach to a famous scene in the “The Godfather” and warns the U.S. to be wary of any deal with Iran, no matter how good it might look on paper.

“The war with the Islamic republic will be over when the horse’s head is in the bed and the last ayatollah wakes up screaming, covered in blood,” he writes.

• April 29 — Cuba: Prospects for Transition, Hudson Institute

• April 30 — Hearing: Taking a Bigger Byte | China’s Expanding Strategy for Data Dominance, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission

• April 30 — Korean Messiah: The Religious and Ideological Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult, American Enterprise Institute

• April 30 — A Conversation with Libya’s U.N Ambassador Taher El-Sonni: Libya’s Strategic Outlook, Stimson Center

• May 4 — What’s Next for Japanese Security Policy and U.S.-Japan Relations? Perspectives from the Diet, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• May 4 — Economic Security and Mega Choke Points: Japan’s Strategic Reset, Brookings Institution 

• May 7-9 — The Artificial Intelligence+ Expo, Special Competitive Studies Project