Trump’s WHO withdrawal too hasty by half

The World Health Organization, the United Nations agency that has served as the planet’s premier global health organization since 1948, has undeniably kowtowed to China too much of late. In response to a Dec. 31 inquiry from Taiwan about people suffering from a strange, pneumonia-like illness in Wuhan, the WHO echoed China’s contention that the …

Saudi TV series speaks volumes about regional dynamics

During the holy month of Ramadan, now underway, when TV viewership among Muslims traditionally skyrockets, Saudi Arabia’s MBC network is airing a series about Jewish families in a fictional Arab country in the late 1940s — a series that speaks volumes about what’s changing, and what isn’t, across the region. In the series “Umm Haroun,” …

Israel has lots at stake with annexation

With Israel’s new “unity” government now set, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a decision in the coming weeks with huge consequences for Israel’s relations with America and the wider world: whether to begin the process of annexing major parts of the West Bank. That’s because an Israeli decision to pursue annexation would strike at the …

Iran’s coronavirus response highlights authoritarianism’s dangers

With the coronavirus forcing Iran to dig mass graves for its victims, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected U.S. aid offers of recent days and suggested that America “specifically built” the virus “for Iran using the genetic data of Iranians which they have obtained through different means.” “You cannot be trusted,” Khamenei told the United States …

New York Times’ ‘1619 Project’ unjustly weakens America abroad

The New York Times’ decision of recent days to make a “clarification” to one sentence in the lead essay of its “1619 Project” won’t do much to quell a growing fight over the meaning of America’s founding — a fight with profound implications for the nation’s continuing influence around the world. That’s because the project …

West should echo Prague’s Nemtsov remembrance

This week, the city of Prague will commemorate the fifth anniversary of the slaying of Russia’s freedom-promoting opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, by renaming for him the square where Russia’s embassy is located. It’s a timely gesture, for it comes as freedom and democracy continue their global decline of recent years, as China and Russia promote …