Security desk: Russia’s Using US Courts To Target Foes

For all the uproar over Russia’s election interference, little attention is being paid to its “abuse of Interpol and the American court system to persecute the Kremlin’s rivals” in the US, asserts The Atlantic’s Natasha Bertrand. In fact, Russia’s requests to Interpol to issue international arrest warrants called Red Notices against Kremlin dissidents “are being met with increasing deference by the Department of Homeland Security.” While the Justice Department says it does not consider Red Notices alone sufficient grounds to make an arrest — Interpol makes no independent effort to assess their validity — Homeland Security is “effectively facilitating ‘backdoor’ extraditions” by relying on them “as a basis for detention and, ultimately, removal.” Which means US courts essentially are assisting with “an extremely corrupt” Russian criminal-justice proceedings.

Political scribe: What Trump Can Learn From Bill Clinton

The president’s approval ratings are low, he’s being investigated by a special prosecutor and there are calls by the other party for his impeachment. That describes Donald Trump — but, as James Antle at The Week notes, it also describes Bill Clinton in 1994. And he eventually “turned it all around,” despite actually being impeached. Which is why Trump, instead of using the former president as a foil, should look to him “as a model.” Granted, it’s a tougher climb — Trump “has a much more adversarial relationship” with journalists than Clinton ever did. But “impeachment, government shutdown and some unforced errors by a party seething with anger at the sitting president got Clinton back in the game.” Trump may well find this formula “can work for him, too.”

Foreign desk: How Should the World Treat Imran Khan?

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has finally been accepted as Pakistan’s new prime minister, even as almost all opposition parties are contesting the recent election, which was “very far from fair,” reports Bloomberg’s Mihir Sharma. So where does this leave the rest of the world? With a dilemma: We “have to continue to support Pakistan’s democratization,” but “do we want to help legitimize a government elected with the open support of the military?” Because “it’s hard to imagine a Khan-led government doing anything other than what the military would want it to do.” That means protecting those who carry out attacks in Afghanistan, defending Pakistan’s stringent religious laws and keeping “the fires of anti-American sentiment burning.” The West, says Sharma, “must remain cautious” and not embrace Khan “too early.”

From the right: The Irony of ‘Trump Anxiety Disorder’

Back in 2003, recalls Mike LaChance at Town Hall, the late Charles Krauthammer (who was also a psychiatrist) coined the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome,” which he defined as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people” caused by “the very existence of George W. Bush.” Nowadays, we’re seeing pretty much the same thing with regards to President Trump: Last January, congressional Democrats were briefed by a Yale psychiatry professor who told them Trump was “mentally unfit for office” and should be removed “by force, if necessary.” Now therapists are reporting an increase in what they’ve labeled “Trump Anxiety Syndrome” — which is “simply a nicer way of describing Trump Derangement Syndrome.” To be honest, Trump’s election actually was “a traumatic experience” for those on the left, whose trusted journalistic sources who repeatedly assured them he didn’t stand a chance.

Medical writer: US Women Having Too Many C-Sections

Four decades ago, one in ten10 American babies were delivered by caesarian section; today, according to Jacqueline Wolf at the Los Angeles Times, the figure is one in three. Much of the increase is due to the use of electronic fetal monitors, which increase the likelihood that a doctor will tell a woman in labor she needs a c-section. But though used routinely, the device “has a fraught history,” she says. Studies have shown it doesn’t affect the morality rate — but under its “perpetual gaze,” fetal distress, “once an infrequent diagnosis,” has become commonplace. Yes, a caesarean “can be necessary and even life-saving.” But most such procedures performed in the US today “are unnecessary and therefore unjustifiably risky.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann