What We’re Watching: Putin’s threat against foreign troops, Thailand has another new PM, Report emerges of failed US mission in North Korea

Putin warns foreign troops in Ukraine would be “legitimate targets”

A day after France and 25 allies pledged to send a “reassurance force” to Ukraine once a ceasefire takes hold, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the idea and warned any foreign troops would be fair game for Russian attacks. Paris insists the force would deter new aggression, not fight Russia directly, but Moscow sees it as escalation – insinuating that the troops could be a tripwire for World War III. Russia is trying to shape the terms of any future peace, even as its offensive grinds on.

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Thailand picks new PM, but crisis far from over

Thailand’s parliament has chosen Anutin Charnvirakul, a cannabis-crusading conservative, as its third prime minister in two years, after the Constitutional Court ousted Paetongtarn Shinawatra last week. Anutin’s small Bhumjaithai party secured power with backing from the progressive People’s Party, but only on condition that new elections be held within four months. Paetongtarn’s removal stemmed from a leaked call with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen over a border dispute, a scandal that fractured her coalition. Chronic political instability in Bangkok doesn’t just undermine democracy, it complicates relations with Cambodia, where lingering border tensions could flare without steady leadership.

Report emerges of aborted Trump-backed Navy SEAL mission in North Korea

In 2019, Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to step into North Korea, and appeared to have a relatively warm meeting with Kim Jong Un. Behind the scenes, though, he was greenlighting a Navy SEAL operation that same year to plant a wire on Kim, the New York Times reported on Friday. It was all part of the US’s decades-long effort to limit North Korea’s nuclear activity. The mission involved sending US troops onto North Korean soil, an incredibly risky move. When the troops arrived on the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, though, a North Korean boat was circling the area. The SEALs killed all the people on that ship, then aborted the mission.