The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) scrambled fighter jets on Wednesday to identify and intercept four Russian military aircraft off Alaska, it said Thursday.

Donald Trump's naive optimism regarding Vladimir Putin has been evident once again. The American president's exaggerated self-confidence is not enough to soften the imperial resolve of his Russian counterpart, a beast of power that has set itself the mission of restoring Russia to greatness. The Alaska summit, complete with a red carpet, beyond legitimizing the invader of Ukraine, apparently achieved little. Putin emerged satisfied and even joked about a meeting with Trump in Moscow. Trump, on the other hand, emerged walled in and summoned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House on Monday. We hope this time it won't be to boo him in public.