A C-17 Globemaster left Joint Base Andrews on Aug. 25, routed by way of Riga, Latvia, and landed in Moscow. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was aboard and spent about eight hours there. The Kremlin says he did not meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. President Donald Trump called the trip semi-routine. What Ratcliffe carried there is […]
On May 29, the lower house of Poland’s parliament voted 428-3 to honor the 250th anniversary of American independence. Nobody voted against. Watching from the gallery was Tom Rose, the U.S. ambassador who had spent the previous four months in an open, personal feud with the marshal who announced the result. Rules of professional diplomacy […]
President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again, saying he hopes to arrange a meeting later this year. The two leaders held their first historic summit in Singapore in 2018, a second in Vietnam in 2019, and a brief meeting at the Demilitarized Zone later […]
Perhaps the truest metaphor for U.S. foreign policy today is Charlie Brown trying to kick a football, only to have his friend Lucy pull it away at the last minute, leaving him flat on his back. The United States leans on allies, especially in times of crisis. There is nothing wrong with this. Where U.S. […]
Based on old First Amendment court cases, federal law had told religious groups blessing the food could cost them their grants — unless such “explicitly religious activities” (like prayer) were offered “separately, in time or location,” from the taxpayer-funded service. Only religious charities had this headache; secular groups could promote their nonreligious views without consulting […]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, America experienced a disturbing phenomenon: a run on toilet paper. Most of us remember the headlines. “Why Are Stores Running Out of Toilet Paper?” NPR asked. “Why are people stockpiling toilet paper?” asked the BBC. The pandemic has been over for years, but toilet paper is suddenly back in […]
The United States and Venezuela have reached a preliminary agreement that establishes U.S. majority control over 17 Venezuelan oil fields holding an estimated 65 billion barrels of crude oil reserves. The deal extends for 25 years. With this transaction, President Donald Trump has dramatically increased energy security for the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. now controls about […]
There is only one nation in the world whose identity, whose very existence, is based on a book. That nation is Israel, and the book is the Bible. The Bible makes the astounding claim that God himself gave the land of Israel to the Jews, to the descendants of Abraham, approximately 4,000 years ago. The […]