Wichita

Macron’s turn at G7 helm: Can he offer Trump anything to keep him in?

With France taking its turn this year as head of the Group of Seven most-advanced industrialized countries, President Emmanuel Macron is identifying climate change and cooperative efforts to soften the economic downsides of globalization as his priorities. In other words, how does a group of the world’s most powerful and influential Western nations keep the most powerful and influential among them – President Trump’s United States – as part of the fold, even as it pursues progress on issues that have already raised the hackles of the anti-multilateralist president? For France the answer seems to be, at least in part, to meet Mr. Trump halfway.

Emergency alert: Declaration could end shutdown – and create new challenges

President Trump says he is not rushing to declare a national emergency as a means to build his border wall. “I’m not looking to call a national emergency. This is so simple you shouldn’t have to do it,” he told reporters this week.

For Europe, a push against the violence of hate

Poland just gave a tender lesson to the rest of Europe on how to deal with hate speech – and its consequences. On Jan. 14, the mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz, was assassinated at an annual charity event aimed at bringing Poles together. The killer’s motives, according to most commentators, could easily be attributed to the country’s toxic political climate.

Postwar Syria? Arab world moving to bring Damascus back into the fold.

After nearly eight years of trying to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Gulf states and their Arab allies are rapidly embracing Damascus anew. The bitter enemies in the civil war-turned-proxy war that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions are reopening embassies, reestablishing trade ties, and paving the way for Syria’s return to regional organizations. At stake in the shorter term are regional efforts to contain Shiite Iran, and in the long term even the international rehabilitation of Syria.