Globe Trot: Those White Helmets

SYRIA: The White Helmets who won an Oscar last night are referenced locally as “the Al-Nusra White Helmets” because they are long-aligned with the Islamic rebel-terrorist group and earned their reputation for daring rescues primarily in rebel- and terrorist-controlled Eastern Aleppo. Not just anyone can call on those White Helmets, while most Syrians know to dial 113 for the Syria Civil Defense Corps, around since 1953 and regarded also as “White Helmets.” In Syria, the newer White Helmets are controversial—after all, they are well-funded and always seem to have a camera crew nearby. But six years into a civil war with humanitarian carnage on both sides, everyone has an angle, and it’s Russian media with a pro-Assad bent that seems most interested in reporting on the differing White Helmets.

We’re waiting to see if there’s a Syrian military offensive component to President Trump’s announcement today of a 10 percent increase in defense spending, with details to follow ahead of his Tuesday joint address to Congress.

MALAYSIA: Police say they have no leads in the abduction two weeks ago of Pastor Raymond Koh Keng Joo, 62, who was taken by at least five masked men in the city of Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur.

NIGER: Four months after his kidnapping, there’s no word on American Jeffery Woodke, longtime missionary with Youth With a Mission.

NIGERIA: Two German archaeologists, kidnapped in Kaduna state, were freed over the weekend.

SUDAN: Authorities yesterday released from prison Petr Jašek, a Christian aid worker from Czech Republic, who said he was held with Islamic State militants and beaten during 14 months’ confinement. Two Sudanese pastors taken into custody at the same time are still being held.

SAUDI ARABIA: A state visit by King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to Indonesia takes 459 tons of equipment being flown in to accommodate his entourage of 620 people. But wait a minute: Most of that cargo looks to be going to the seaside resort of Bali.