Reporter ben hubbard writes this in ote, of my favorite five word openings to any paragraph. The mysticism and mystery truly swirls around this phrase. Scholars of the middle east point out that the united states has a long history of doing business with autocrats - including every soudy king. This is clearly a white house talking point. But say, perhaps they argue, a closer american relationship can cultivate the good and discourage the bad. What is this madeleine and how prince mohammed wields his tremendous wealth power? And so this is so good. Again, this is a straight report. Is not an editorial.
In this public News Brief, we detail the strange quadrennial tradition of acting like the US is "abandoning its principles" by reaffirming decades-long alliances with Israel and Saudi Arabia.