Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dimitri Muratov of Russia are the winners of the coveted international award for 2021. —Ms. Ressa has been a leading advocate of press freedom in her country, and the target of repeated efforts of the Philippines government to silence her. —Mr. Muratov co-founded Novaya Gazeta, described by the…
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A wide-angle photo of the Mall surrounding the Washington Monument tells the grim story. Tiny white monuments to victims of the disease stretch to the horizon. Scores of eyewitnesses file through a winding path to the Monument, obviously moved by their firsthand glimpse of the scale of the nation’s COVID-19 death toll. Compare this pandemic…
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Starting October 1st, the Biden administration is doubling the ceiling on Afghan refugees re-settling here, permitting local communities to expand aid to displaced Afghans arriving in the United States. Washington is expanding the total to 125,000, according to local newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. “It’s just the humane thing to do… they are humans…
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As October 1 approaches, President Biden again has urged action to save Planet Earth from the devastating universal threat of unchecked global warming. As the Associated Press put it: “Biden spoke at the White House September 24 as Democrats in the Senate and House are laboring to finish drafts and overcome remaining differences between the…
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Virtual programming is a key tool in cultivating your public diplomacy garden. This article is based on the white paper Creating a Virtual Programming Ecosystem. To learn more, download the white paper here. By Loren Hurst If there is one lesson to be drawn from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that online interaction as a…
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On September 15 last year, the United States, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed what has been called “a positive step toward stability in the turbulent Middle East.” The key goal: endorsing a significant new trend in Arab-Israeli relations through: —Recognition of Israel and normalizing its diplomatic relations for the first time with several Arab…
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We may differ on the withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan, but you may agree on this: What would we have done without Qatar? In the evacuation of American citizens and their allies from Afghanistan, the small Arab state stepped forward as a key enabler, accepting 40 percent of the 113,500 flown out since…
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A U.S. State Department report, “The Climate Crisis; Working Together for Future Generations,” sums it all up: “Bold action to tackle the climate crisis is more urgent than ever. The record-breaking heat, floods, storms and drought, and wildfires devastating communities around the world underscore the grave risks we also face. “Through our actions at home…
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The tiny ministate of 2.9 million citizens just due north from the western shore of the Gulf, joined on the Arabian Peninsula by a narrow border with Saudi Arabia. Yet its role in the region’s diplomacy is stunning for a country of its size. As an August 31 deadline approached for the United States and…
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“My four children are now all safe,” Suneeta told CNN on August 28, as they were being air-evacuated from Kabul. Suneeta did not want her name or her children’s names published because of understandable safety concerns. Her husband had worked with U.S. troops prior to his disappearance in Afghanistan eight years ago. His fate remains…
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