Two op-ed pieces in the December 26 edition of The Washington Post: “Democracy taken for granted” by columnist Anne Applebaum and “Stopping the flow of corruption” by Tom Malinowski, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

An art review by David Mermelstein, in the Masterpiece series of the December 20-21 issue of The Wall Street Journal: “Confronting Death With Music and Verse” ‘A musical work that suggests that dying is not the end, but rather a transition’

The masterpiece is “Four Last Songs” (1948) by Richard Strauss.