While China emerges as the global winner of the pandemic challenge and related economic crisis, it is often forgotten that there is another China that is a far more attractive model for the free world. It is the China of Taiwan. It has a lower mortality and higher growth rate. Yet for all international organisations, Taiwan ‘doesn’t exist’.

The deposition of dictator Siad Barre in January 1991 should have opened a new era of freedom and development: instead, a war between clans broke out, which still endures today and has encouraged the growth of Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab. Not to mention the billions of dollars in international aid that have ended up in the pockets of the ‘warlords’.

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Africa was projected to be the hardest hit continent. The projection proved to be incorrect. Now international organizations are making it a priority to vaccinate Africa. The problem is not supply. Even African nations are purchasing doses in huge quantities. The problem is local organization.

Opioid deaths increased in the first three months of 2020 in the United States. From 1999 to 2017, opioid overdose deaths totalled nearly 400,000. The extremely potent fentanyl and others are ranked 5th in causes of preventable deaths. And there is the suspicion that existing users may step up their use if they test positive for Covid.

Before Trump’s own eyes, America’s system of power went into lockdown, proving it was no longer a democracy because now it is a given that freedom can be bought. When John Paul II and Benedict XVI spoke of democracy as a potential totalitarian system, this is what they were referring to. Instead, Trump while doing so in unfashionable style, made arguments that lay the foundation for freedom and which make it unable to be bought by the system: arguments about life, God, the nation as a natural community, faith, and natural law. He was a rebel. An anarchist of democracy.

The only thing that is certain about the next early elections in Israel, the fourth in two years, is the date: March 23rd. Otherwise, 2021 already looks like a year full of uncertainties. First and foremost: will Iran follow up on its threats against the US?

The new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report adds environmental parameters to the Human Development Index. An ideological change that leads to a new conception of development, which requires sacrificing humanity.

To understand certain accusations against the late Cardinal Gulbinowicz and other Polish prelates, one must reread history. The communist regime fought all its opponents with physical or psychological persecution. The Polish secret service prepared dossiers on every priest. In the 1970s roughly 1,000 officials worked for the sole purpose of monitoring the Church, which was perceived as an enemy of the communist system. Only a few priests (about 10%) collaborated with the communist authorities. Those who resisted or "caused trouble" faced being killed.

Jimmy Lai has been arrested again. He is a Catholic businessman and media mogul who  now risks 14 years behind bars for opposing the Chinese Communist regime. Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, is convinced: "Jimmy Lai is being persecuted for his ideas on human liberty, including that of the press, of enterprise and of religion". Far from being a lost cause, according to Sirico it is "smouldering embers" that could be rekindled also in mainland China.

The 2020 Global Terrorism Index reveals a significant decrease in terrorism worldwide, with significant drops in the number of victims in Afghanistan and Nigeria. The region most affected by the Islamic State and affiliated jihadist groups is sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is now the main front, with seven out of ten countries registering the highest increases in deadly attacks.

The EU is attacking Hungary and Poland against the spirit of its own Treaties. The European Parliament wants to impose "LGBT rights" on Hungary and is now challenging Poland’s ban on selective abortions, which are matters of national jurisdiction. The two Central European nations have formed a coalition in the Budapest Pact in order to be respected by Brussels. Viktor Orban responds in tone to George Soros who is a great proponent of the EU.

If Biden makes it to the White House, Vice President Harris and in particular her husband Douglas Elmhoff will be the real drivers of change. They will stage the new happy normal of gender equality and extended broken families.