When spooks meet, strange things happen.

WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence officials have met with North Korean counterparts secretly for a decade, a covert channel that allowed communications during tense times, aided in the release of detainees and helped pave the way for President Trump’s historic summit last year with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

And before that, the end of missile testing? An important foreign-policy achievement by this POTUS.

Quite good coverage of this media fiasco.

Meanwhile, the Covington mayor and bishop and school authorities are hanging their heads, we presume.

Here is the Covington Catholic students’ (documented) side of the story of the native American harassed by the students. Not quite harassed, rather harassed themselves in a put-up job by veteran activist and others. School should be proud of these students.

Harsh, accurate, arresting:

The current regime in Rome will damage the Catholic Church. Pope ­Francis combines laxity and ruthlessness. His style is casual and approachable; his church politics are cold and cunning. There are leading themes in this pontificate—­mercy, accompaniment, peripheries, and so forth—but no theological framework. He is a verbal semi-automatic weapon, squeezing off rounds of barbed remarks, spiritual aperçus, and earthy asides (­coprophagia!). This has created a confusing, even dysfunctional atmosphere that will become intolerable, if it hasn’t already.

I go for the latter.

Pope Francis, by contrast [with popes John Paul II and Benedict, who had their
own agendas], is quick to denounce, widening gaps rather than closing them. More often than not, he targets the core Catholic faithful. He regularly attacks “mummified” Christians and “rosary counters.” On many occasions, Francis has singled out doctrinally orthodox priests for ridicule. The same holds for those who favor the Latin Mass, whom he derides as suffering from a “rigidity” born of “insecurity.” Early in his pontificate, his Christmas sermon to the curia recited a litany of condemnations.

more more more

F: Me now pope, forget B.

Pope Francis has a plan to eliminate the legacy and disciples of Benedict XVI. The operation has stirred up the Vatican, which has not by any means significantly opposed the incumbent Pope.

It’s a sort of coup d’etat atmosphere.

Not only no more bowing before potentates or dropping billions in case for our Iranian, what? Friends? But pressuring rivals, as opposed to timidly conceding the game.

The president is regularly attacked by critics for withdrawing from the global stage and undermining the American-led world order, but his goal in Asia is consistent with that of previous administrations from both parties: preserving what the Trump administration calls a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Mr. Trump has energetically pursued this goal, overturning significant parts of America’s Indo-Pacific policy dating back to the 1970s. His decision to levy tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods made clear that Washington is dropping the fiction that China is a fair trading partner.

The U.S. military has increased freedom-of-navigation operations and flyovers near China’s new military bases in the South China Sea.

Etc.

The writer adds cautions to this applause.

Though few in Washington will admit it publicly, policy makers on both sides of the aisle see Mr. Trump’s bold stance as long overdue. Yet his Asia pivot is also risky.

Some worry he will rush into an agreement with North Korea, perhaps withdrawing U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula in return for a promise of denuclearization. If Mr. Trump caves in to pressure from Pyongyang, Seoul and Beijing to reach a bad deal, it may be impossible to convince Tokyo and other allies that Washington won’t pack up its troops and leave them to face the Chinese threat on their own.

Upshot:

No one should be in any doubt about the stakes: Beijing is looking to hasten the day when it replaces the U.S. as the indispensable Indo-Pacific power. America’s allies in the region are watching—some fearfully—to see whether the time has come to cleave to China and support Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. Mr. Trump’s pivot may offer the last chance to forestall such an outcome.

Seems to be so.