Mohamed Al Hammadi/Ministry of Presidential Affairs via AP Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in 2019 The Biden administration has pledged to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for human rights violations, though its restrained approach has raised skepticism. Congress has the power to step in, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing last week to assess the role it can play.The hearing included a Saudi activist, explaining that torture has been documented 3,000 times in Saudi prisons. There was a free-speech advocate, urging the U.S. to...…Mohamed Al Hammadi/Ministry of Presidential Affairs via AP Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in 2019 The Biden administration has pledged to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for human rights violations, though its restrained approach has raised skepticism. Congress has the power to step in, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing last week to assess the role it can play.The hearing included a Saudi activist, explaining that torture has been documented 3,000 times in Saudi prisons. There was a free-speech advocate, urging the U.S. to...WW…

Days after winning the November election, Joe Biden announced the names of those staffing his transition. Big Tech landed prominent spots. Among the hundreds of personnel on the agency review teams serving the president-elect, there was one from Uber, two from Amazon, and one from Google. And then there were two people from Rebellion Defense, a shadowy defense startup.The announcement sent Washington insiders scrambling to look up the company. No major defense contractors appeared on the list. “It’s sure odd that a year-old startup like Rebellion winds up with two employees serving on a...…Days after winning the November election, Joe Biden announced the names of those staffing his transition. Big Tech landed prominent spots. Among the hundreds of personnel on the agency review teams serving the president-elect, there was one from Uber, two from Amazon, and one from Google. And then there were two people from Rebellion Defense, a shadowy defense startup.The announcement sent Washington insiders scrambling to look up the company. No major defense contractors appeared on the list. “It’s sure odd that a year-old startup like Rebellion winds up with two employees serving on a...WW…

Hani Mohammed/AP Photo The deadliest emergency will be in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been waging a brutal war. The craziest thing Mike Pompeo did this past week wasn’t even touting links between Al-Qaeda and Iran.As President Donald Trump rages his way out the door, his sabotage-minded secretary of state has worked hard to ensure that Biden’s foreign-policy options will be limited long after Trump is gone. Among the fires Pompeo set during a hectic week: enraging China, choking diplomacy with Cuba, and enacting policies that will escalate the already dire...…Hani Mohammed/AP Photo The deadliest emergency will be in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been waging a brutal war. The craziest thing Mike Pompeo did this past week wasn’t even touting links between Al-Qaeda and Iran.As President Donald Trump rages his way out the door, his sabotage-minded secretary of state has worked hard to ensure that Biden’s foreign-policy options will be limited long after Trump is gone. Among the fires Pompeo set during a hectic week: enraging China, choking diplomacy with Cuba, and enacting policies that will escalate the already dire...WW…

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead Kushner at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2017 The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and now Morocco. Countries that have signed accords with Israel share a common factor: They’re all monarchies and, almost by definition, do not represent the will of their people. They have few qualms about jailing political dissidents or snuffing out press coverage that criticizes their unpopular deal-making with Israel.Amid all of this quid-pro-quo diplomacy, what is the U.S. doing to advance human rights? The White House convened a...…Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead Kushner at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2017 The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and now Morocco. Countries that have signed accords with Israel share a common factor: They’re all monarchies and, almost by definition, do not represent the will of their people. They have few qualms about jailing political dissidents or snuffing out press coverage that criticizes their unpopular deal-making with Israel.Amid all of this quid-pro-quo diplomacy, what is the U.S. doing to advance human rights? The White House convened a...WW…

For those supportive of unmanned planes bluntly targeting alleged terrorists in Pakistan, the reported death of was a moment for celebration – a validation of this policy.In spite of a random success such as , the blowback of drones is clearly self-defeating.Take this wire, for instance, just in from :A US drone strike into the South Waziristan Agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) struck a house in the village of Ladda, and wounding several others.A tragedy like this raises life-or death as to whether there is an upside to such a US-driven effort.The Under...…For those supportive of unmanned planes bluntly targeting alleged terrorists in Pakistan, the reported death of was a moment for celebration – a validation of this policy.In spite of a random success such as , the blowback of drones is clearly self-defeating.Take this wire, for instance, just in from :A US drone strike into the South Waziristan Agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) struck a house in the village of Ladda, and wounding several others.A tragedy like this raises life-or death as to whether there is an upside to such a US-driven effort.The Under...WW…

When Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, many started turning away from the president. CEOs distanced themselves from the White House. Republican leaders denounced his remarks. But on a Sunday talk show the next day, national-security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster came through to champion his boss.“The president’s been very clear,” McMaster said in 2017. He emphasized that Trump wasn’t a bigot, and he offered no apologies on the president’s behalf. Instead, he talked about American values in the abstract and evaded Trump’s...…When Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, many started turning away from the president. CEOs distanced themselves from the White House. Republican leaders denounced his remarks. But on a Sunday talk show the next day, national-security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster came through to champion his boss.“The president’s been very clear,” McMaster said in 2017. He emphasized that Trump wasn’t a bigot, and he offered no apologies on the president’s behalf. Instead, he talked about American values in the abstract and evaded Trump’s...WW…

They had been public servants their whole careers. But when Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, two departing Obama officials were anxious for work. Trump’s win had caught them by surprise.Sergio Aguirre and Nitin Chadda had reached the most elite quarters of U.S. foreign policy. Aguirre had started out of school as a fellow in the White House and a decade later had become chief of staff to U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power. Chadda, who joined the Pentagon out of college as a speechwriter, had become a key adviser to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in even less time. Now, Chadda had a...…They had been public servants their whole careers. But when Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, two departing Obama officials were anxious for work. Trump’s win had caught them by surprise.Sergio Aguirre and Nitin Chadda had reached the most elite quarters of U.S. foreign policy. Aguirre had started out of school as a fellow in the White House and a decade later had become chief of staff to U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power. Chadda, who joined the Pentagon out of college as a speechwriter, had become a key adviser to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in even less time. Now, Chadda had a...WW…

W.W. Norton It’s hard to be funny and even harder to parody Donald Trump, who is so prone to self-parody that many Trump jokes fall flat. But in a whopping five columns a week for The Washington Post, Alexandra Petri finds new ways to capture the daily barrage of corrupt and outrageous behavior emerging from the White House. A recent favorite: “.”In a pandemic, humor can reveal the absurdity of policy choices and bad governance in a way that serious writing cannot. Petri takes the words of the administration, of Congress, and of presidential candidates to their logical conclusions, and the...…W.W. Norton It’s hard to be funny and even harder to parody Donald Trump, who is so prone to self-parody that many Trump jokes fall flat. But in a whopping five columns a week for The Washington Post, Alexandra Petri finds new ways to capture the daily barrage of corrupt and outrageous behavior emerging from the White House. A recent favorite: “.”In a pandemic, humor can reveal the absurdity of policy choices and bad governance in a way that serious writing cannot. Petri takes the words of the administration, of Congress, and of presidential candidates to their logical conclusions, and the...WW…