◼ This week, National Review turned 70—a venerable age for a magazine, as for a man. In the lead editorial of our first issue in 1955, our founder, William F. Buckley Jr., wrote that we meant to stand athwart history, yelling Stop! History never stops, of course. The churn of the world ever breeds external civilizational dangers. Since Day One, we have opposed hostile foreign powers and the ideas and idea-mongers that made resisting them seem pointless. Our work has not been all negative, however. Life, especially in our dear country, is filled with beauty and good work and is always open to grace. We prize great art, sober statesmanship, and human flourishing. We began in a mediascape dominated by broadsheet newspapers, weekly magazines, and two television networks. Now everything from porn to Plato is in everyone’s pants pocket. Through it all we have labored to assemble the best words—clear, amusing, stirring whenever we can. We remember the great writers who passed through these pages and have passed away; we delight in presenting the next young tunesmiths to come along. At 70 we give thanks—to our colleagues over the years; to our supporters and readers; to the United States of America; and to the God of victories, and of mercy.

◼ To live is to maneuver, said Whittaker Chambers. But even the clear-eyed Cold Warrior might have been shocked by this one: President Donald Trump executed an abrupt about-face on the Epstein files. After excoriating everyone who wanted to vote to release them, and intensely lobbying recalcitrant members of Congress, he decided to bolt in the other direction to get in front of the parade. A vote to release the files passed the House with only one nay vote. Trump signed the bill on Wednesday, and the Justice Department now has 30 days to release all documents related to the case. Not that this is necessarily a good thing. We’d prefer maximal transparency, overseen by the relevant judges in the various ongoing Epstein-related cases, rather than a willy-nilly, politicized push to violate every standard practice in the hopes of nailing Trump or exposing some vast criminal conspiracy. The Epstein emails released so far have caused problems for Harvard professor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who announced this week that he will stop teaching while the university investigates his close ties to Epstein. But for Trump, the emails are what one might expect given what we know so far: They are embarrassing regarding his relationship with Epstein but contain no smoking gun regarding any misconduct by the president. Where there’s smoke . . . there’s sometimes just smoke.

◼ Trump had a characteristically over-the-top meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The president provided cover for Salman for the truly medieval Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi—scolding a reporter for asking about it—and raved about the Saudi royal, while offering some notable benefits to the kingdom. Trump said Saudi Arabia will become a “major non-NATO ally” and offered it a security guarantee. Trump also wants to sell the Saudis F-35s. The kingdom loves these sorts of prestige weapons purchases, even though they can bomb the Houthis with F-15s just fine. On the other side of the ledger, the Saudis didn’t give us much, except an assurance that they will invest even more in the United States, increasing the total from a promised $600 billion to a probably fanciful $1 trillion. Trump is right to want to move beyond the foolish (and failed) Biden administration tack of trying to isolate the Saudis, but it would behoove him to curb his enthusiasm.

◼ Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) has been perhaps the most unlikely beneficiary of strange new respect in the history of D.C. In recent weeks, she has gone from a conspiracy theorist disdained by the legacy media to a conspiracy theorist given a respectful hearing by the legacy media, based on her criticisms of her fellow Republicans and her feud with Trump. The proximate cause of the breakup was MTG’s support for the House vote to release the Epstein files. She is winning at least a tactical victory on this issue. But Greene, true to form, believes that there has been a nefarious cover-up to protect pedophiles, with, of course, Israeli involvement. More broadly, Greene is a Tucker Carlson–style isolationist who believes that Trump has betrayed MAGA and working Americans by being so engaged around the world. Greene has complained that Trump has called her a “traitor,” arguing that it puts her life at risk. It was indeed wrong of Trump to say this—it’s untrue, and it’s unworthy of his office—but MTG hasn’t found fault in Trump’s lobbing such rhetorical grenades in the past. What do they say about being able to dish it out but not take it? Given how these intra-MAGA feuds with Trump often work, a reconciliation could come at some point. That won’t change the fact that Greene is a conspiracist with a naïve and dangerous view of the world.

And we’ll continue adding new safeguards, giving parents more peace of mind.

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◼ The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly approved its first pastoral “Special Message” in twelve years, in which the bishops took issue with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. As is often the case, the bishops apply sound moral judgments but through the lens of highly contestable assessments of practical reality. They are right to warn against “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or law enforcement” and to urge “the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants.” They properly acknowledge that “nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system,” without which migrants face “trafficking and other forms of exploitation”—a heartening recognition that there is moral weight on the pro-enforcement side, too. And they are right that the ends of security and human dignity need not be irreconcilable. While the bishops call for a “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures,” however, they advocate certain measures that we typically oppose. It is always important to be reminded that immigrants deserve humane treatment, but we need immigration laws that protect our nation’s sovereignty and advance its interests.

◼ The current president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is probably the only world leader who has spent time incarcerated at a U.S. military prison camp. Under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, Sharaa traveled to Iraq in 2003 and joined al-Qaeda; he was later captured and held at Camp Bucca. In 2011, at the start of the Syrian civil war, he formed the Nusra Front as an affiliate of the Islamic State. But Sharaa had a falling-out with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2013, and the al-Nusra Front split off. Until late December, the U.S. government was willing to pay $10 million for information about Sharaa’s location, because he was on the “specially designated global terrorist” list. By 2024, Sharaa and his coalition, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, had toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Since Trump took office, he’s been surprisingly warm and friendly to the Syrian president. After meeting Sharaa in Saudi Arabia in May, Trump described him to reporters on Air Force One as a “young, attractive guy, tough guy.” On November 12, the New York Times delivered a scoop that affirmed what some in the Middle East had suspected for a while. Sharaa’s actions have quietly been more pro-American and anti-ISIS than many had realized: “The Syrian leader has been discreetly cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and Al Qaeda since he took control of a slice of rebel-held territory in northwestern Syria in 2016.” This may not make Sharaa our man in Damascus, but it helps explain why the U.S. government wants to maintain its relationship with the man and the government he now leads.

And we’ll continue adding new safeguards, giving parents more peace of mind.

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◼ Britain’s Labour government has proposed a slate of restrictive reforms to the country’s immigration and asylum system that has won rare, if mixed, praise from the right and has outraged the Labour Party’s progressive base. According to the “Danish model” changes announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, refugees will have their asylum status periodically reevaluated and will have their status revoked if it’s deemed safe to return to their home countries. Refugees will also be required to wait 20 years rather than five to apply for permanent residency in Britain, and other reforms will be introduced to limit the level of legal migration, cut welfare to those remaining in Britain illegally, speed up asylum appeals, and ban nationals of countries who refuse to accept deportations from obtaining British visas. It remains to be seen whether the Labour government can hold firm against what is shaping up to be a mutiny from the party’s left.

◼ David Pryce-Jones led a remarkable 20th-century life. His father was an English author and Liberal Party politician, his mother a member of a French Jewish banking dynasty. His parents married in Vienna. In 1940, four-year-old David and his nanny were plucked from Normandy by a relative-in-law, who happened to be a Spanish diplomat. Pryce-Jones went to Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, and served in the Coldstream Guards postwar. He wrote novels and poetry. His nonfiction tackled notable persons, from Joseph Roth to the Duke of Windsor, and knotty subjects, from the Mitford sisters to Arab clan culture. He once played tennis with a topless Greta Garbo (who has not?). Come the Nineties we were lucky enough to add him to the roster at NR. On 9/11, he called the office from England to state the clear hard truth that America was under attack, and to wish us well. His pieces for us showed clear prose, a clear head, and knowledge of just about everything. He has died at 89. Our condolences to his wife, Clarissa, and to his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. R.I.P.