Attention to the Unseen

Nik Steinberg writes: The lack of accountability for what they see as the administration’s foreign-policy malpractice, several diplomats told me, has undermined already-low morale at the department, which has seen a striking number of resignations under Trump; seen more ambassadorships go to political appointees, as opposed to career diplomats, than at any time since the Franklin Roosevelt administration; and whose experts have been smeared repeatedly by the president and his inner circle experts as “Obama holdovers” or part of the…

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The Guardian reports: The philanthropist and former financier George Soros has announced that he is to donate $1bn to fund a new global network of universities designed to promote liberal values and his vision of an open society. In what he hailed as the “most important and enduring project of my life”, Soros said it was important to fund institutions that would help resist the drift towards growing authoritarianism in the US, Russia and China. He also launched a fresh…

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Tim Alberta writes: In a state Trump carried by fewer than 11,000 votes, out of more than 4.5 million cast, even the smallest ripple could be enough to tip the boat. Mid-Michigan may lack the raw numbers of Grand Rapids and metro Detroit, but its political volatility is far more pronounced. Given how dramatically the region swung from 2008 to 2016, it offers an ideal case study for the two questions that will define the 2020 election: Can Trump sustain…

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BBC News reports: The American founder of US-based militant neo-Nazi group The Base is directing the organisation from Russia, a BBC investigation has found. Rinaldo Nazzaro, 46, who uses the aliases “Norman Spear” and “Roman Wolf”, left New York for St Petersburg less than two years ago. The Base is a major counter terrorism focus for the FBI. Seven alleged members were charged this month with various offences, including conspiracy to commit murder. Court documents prepared by the FBI describe…

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The New York Times reports: The president’s focus on Mr. Bloomberg is not commensurate with the former mayor’s standing in the polls so far. Mr. Bloomberg is still below double digits in nearly every survey after spending more than $256 million on ads in less than two months. Mr. Bloomberg has benefited, however, from being mostly ignored by his primary rivals, some of whom don’t want to elevate him in the race, but also don’t want to alienate him and…

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The Daily Beast reports: A suspected agent of the Saudi government attempted to kidnap a regime critic on American soil, according to the critic and multiple U.S. and foreign sources familiar with the episode. The young Saudi man says the FBI saved him from becoming the next Jamal Khashoggi. Abdulrahman Almutairi is a 27-year-old comedian and former student at the University of San Diego with a big social-media presence. After Almutairi used social media to criticize the powerful Crown Prince…

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The London Economic reports: The Prince of Wales has sympathised with the Palestinian people speaking of the “hardships” they face and saying he wished them “freedom, justice and equality” in the future. Charles’s words of support – spoken during his first visit to the Palestinian Occupied Territories – came as US President Donald Trump was expected to unveil his long-awaited Middle East peace plan. But the initiative, intended to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is thought to be an unfavourable one…

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The New York Times reports: On the morning of Sept. 11 last year, about two dozen family members of those killed in the terror attacks filed into the White House to visit with President Trump. It was a choreographed, somewhat stiff encounter, in which each family walked to the center of the Blue Room to share a moment of conversation with Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, before having a photograph taken with the first couple. Still, it was…

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CNBC reports: Liberal billionaire George Soros took aim at President Donald Trump and China on Thursday at his annual dinner amid the World Economic Forum. Chinese President Xi Jinping is “trying to exploit Trump’s weaknesses,” Soros told the gathering. He also accused Xi of using “artificial intelligence to have total control of his people.” And while Soros did not discuss the Democratic presidential primary, in which he has yet to make an endorsement, he said the 2020 election will not…

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Henry Siegman writes: The threat of a new war with Iran that might have replicated what has been the worst disaster in the history of America’s international misadventures — George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq based on fabricated lies — sucked the air out of all other international diplomatic activity, not least of what used to be called the Middle East peace process. Yet the failure of the peace process has not been the consequence of recent mindless and destructive…

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