Hopefully China doesn’t take this as a signal to become more aggressive against Taiwan:

A new U.S. national defense strategy released Friday puts protection of the homeland and access to strategic terrain in the Western Hemisphere atop the military’s agenda, marking a shift from the Pentagon’s previous position that countering China was the Defense Department’s number one pacing threat. The Pentagon’s long-awaited new plan lines up with the White House’s National Security Strategy, released last month, and prioritizes border security, targeting drug traffickers and “fearlessly” defending “America’s interests across the hemisphere.” “We will guarantee U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain, especially the Panama Canal, Gulf of America, and Greenland,” the document states. “We will provide President Trump with credible military options to use against narco-terrorists wherever they may be.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

It looks like Cambodia’s top export to South Korea will be deported South Koreans:

Dozens of South Koreans suspected of involvement in scam operations in Cambodia will be repatriated to Korea, officials said Thursday, in the largest overseas transfer of Korean scam suspects.

According to presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, a pangovernmental task force formed to combat transnational crime has coordinated the return of 73 Korean suspects accused of defrauding 869 victims of approximately 48.6 billion won ($33 million).

The task force was established in October following a summit between President Lee Jae Myung and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

K-Pop Demon Hunters should have been nominated for best picture besides best animated film and song. Instead the best picture will likely go to a movie that pushes some kind of left wing narrative. There is hope though, F1 did get nominated for best picture and it is excellent if you haven’t seen it yet:

Netflix’s hit animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” has received two Oscar nominations.

The animated sensation, co-directed by Korean Canadian filmmaker Maggie Kang and American director Chris Appelhans, earned nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “Golden,” according to the announcement of the 98th Academy Awards nominees, livestreamed Thursday.

Produced by Sony Pictures Animation, the film centers on Huntr/x, who live a double life, balancing their music careers with their duties as warriors who protect the world from demonic spirits, like the overlord Gwi-Ma and the soul-stealing Saja Boys.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if South Korea and Japan join the Board of Peace:

DAVOS, Switzerland — Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, seen by some as a rival ‍to the United Nations, has caught officials at some of the countries invited off guard, with several saying they felt compelled to sign up rather than risk the U.S. president’s wrath.

Reuters canvassed 16 world leaders, including politicians and delegates from Arab nations, Latin American countries and Europe at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, with the response fairly consistent.

Officials from several regions said privately that joining Trump’s proposed board felt less like a choice and more an inevitability, as governments weighed the risks of staying out against the uncertainty of signing on.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if Korea or Japan really want to get on Trump’s good side they should offer to host the board in their country.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) looks at men using a spa facility a spa facility as he attends a ceremony marking the completion of remodeling the Onpho Working People’s Holiday Camp in Kyongsong, North Hamgyong Province

These guys seem pretty dumb by admitting to flying these drones over North Korea on TV and thinking nothing was going to happen:

This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 10, 2026, shows what North Korea claimed was a drone sent by South Korea on Sept. 27, 2025

A joint team of police and military investigators on Wednesday raided the homes and offices of three civilian suspects accused of flying drones into North Korea, police said.

The team carried out search and seizure warrants against the three civilian suspects on charges of violating the Aviation Safety Act at 8 a.m., according to the National Police Agency’s National Office of Investigation.

The joint investigation was launched last week after North Korea claimed South Korea infringed on its sovereignty with drone incursions in September and on Jan. 4. South Korea’s military has denied involvement, saying it does not operate the drone models in question.

Police said they would conduct a thorough investigation while keeping all possibilities open but declined to identify the suspects.

The raid comes after a 30-something graduate student, surnamed Oh, claimed to have flown the drones himself in a media interview aired last Friday. The team also questioned a civilian suspect over the alleged incursions the same day.

The two, who attended the same university in Seoul, were found to have worked at the presidential office under former President Yoon Suk Yeol and to have co-founded a drone manufacturing startup with university support in 2024.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.