Friction between Washington and Tehran is growing hotter by the hour, with the Biden administration vowing more military action, while Iran-backed militants in Iraq have already responded to American airstrikes with a drone attack that killed allied Kurdish fighters on a base housing American troops in Syria. 

The attack came after U.S. strikes on Iran-allied militia groups in Iraq and Syria and a separate British and U.S. attack Saturday on 36 targets of Tehran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. National security officials say the strikes represented only the latest round in an ongoing response to attacks on commercial ships by the Houthis and a drone strike in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops on Jan. 28.

With concerns soaring that the White House is stumbling into a quagmire war against Iranian proxies, President Biden wrote Sunday to GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson asserting the latest U.S. strikes were ordered to “protect and defend” U.S. troops in Syria, Iraq and Jordan pursuant to the 2001 Authorization for U.S. of Military Force (AUMF). The president has long faced criticism for pushing engagement with Iran, a policy that opponents say has only fueled Iranian aggression. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham charged over the weekend that U.S. national security is in a free-fall because America’s enemies aren’t intimidated by Mr. Biden.

President Nayib Bukele, the wildly popular 42-year-old who has gained global attention for his harsh crackdown on El Salvador’s out-of-control criminal gangs while also sharply curtailing civil liberties in the country, appeared to coast to a second term in power in elections over the weekend.

Mr. Bukele is one of the more charismatic young leaders in the Western Hemisphere and his rise in recent years has coincided with Cold War-style jockeying between the U.S., China and Russia for influence in Latin America.

China rushed to congratulate Mr. Bukele Sunday (beating the Biden administration to the punch). We’ve reported on warnings from U.S. officials that Beijing is pushing strategic alignment, while Russia is running a “well-funded disinformation campaign” to spread anti-American sentiment in the region.

It’s notable that a recent study by the Inter-American Dialogue think tank found Chinese foreign direct investment to Latin America and the Caribbean has actually slowed somewhat in recent years amid global economic headwinds and shifts in economic and industrial policy in Beijing.

Understanding China’s internal media coverage of the region — and of U.S. southern border issues — remains a challenge. The BBC reports that misinformation has been rampant in some popular Chinese media lately, with false reports over illegal immigration politics in Texas, including a dispatch claiming that the Lone Star State has “officially declared war” and plans to secede from the U.S.

Lost amid the smoke from the most recent wave of North Korean missile tests is an overlooked fact: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is serious about building up his navy.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon reports from Seoul that the Kim regime’s low-tech naval force has long been at the back of the queue for funds, while strategic rocket forces scoop up the big budgets. Now, however, Pyongyang is looking to diversify beyond land-based first-strike assets to a mobile, survivable, sea-based “second-strike” force of missile-armed subs and nuclear-armed underwater drones.

While the North’s navy may still be out-gunned by South Korea’s more technologically sophisticated fleet, a retired South Korean special forces general warns that Mr. Kim’s regime boasts a chilling capacity even the U.S. Navy cannot match: a proven ability to send its sailors and ships on one-way missions to achieve their goals.

A major political fight looms over the $118 billion border and national security spending deal announced Sunday in the Senate, with House Republicans vowing to kill legislation on the deal if it makes it to the chamber this week.

The Senate compromise bill would increase funding by billions for combating illegal immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border, while paving the way for the Biden administration to provide tens of billions in fresh aid for Ukraine and Israel, as well as some $2.6 billion to enhance deterrence of Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

Key border provisions — including money to expand the government’s deportation force and tighten asylum standards — are the linchpin of the bill, with Mr. Biden hoping the provisions can sway Republicans wary of pumping tens of billions of dollars more into Ukraine.

The Israel-Palestine two-state solution is actually a “two-state delusion,” according to columnist Dan Feder, who blames Democrats for wrongly promoting the policy in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Mr. Feder homes in on a recent Arab World for Research and Development poll that showed 75% of Palestinians approved the attack, arguing that if an election were held today in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas would win “hands down.”