The Queen Warns the Grandkids

QUIT the soul-baring: This is the message a source close to the British royals relayed from Queen Elizabeth II to her grandsons, who spent last year talking about mental-health issues, particularly their own, in a major PR campaign.

“It might be that soul-baring isn’t what Buckingham Palace is looking for,” according to the source. With Prince Philip retiring from public life, the queen believes her family must focus on “representing the nation,” not “individual royal activity.”

It’s a refreshing throwback. Did anyone need Prince Harry telling Robin Givens, “Everyone needs a hug every now and then,” before adding, “And it so happens that I’ve been told over and over again that I’m very good at giving hugs”?

Or the boys talking about their trauma in soft-focus videos?

The queen should relay blunt advice from her one-time confidant Winston Churchill: “If you are going through hell, keep going.” She knows the truth of it. And even with a faltering husband and grandchildren given to cringe-worthy disclosures, the queen keeps going. She intends to maintain her full public schedule this year.

The Trump administration announced 10 judicial nominees — all professionally accomplished and known as conservatives. These nominations matter more than ever: The courts’ power has continued to grow, but the Supreme Court’s docket has shrunk.

Trump has deferred to the right people on this issue, both inside and outside his administration. Judicial nominees are the brightest spot in the Trump presidency.

The chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, visited the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, at his home in Sochi. They discussed ongoing war in Ukraine and ongoing war in Syria. Putin is a bad actor in both.

Also, Merkel pressed him on civil and human rights in Russia: the brutalization of gays, particularly in Chechnya; the banning of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; the arrest of political dissenters.

This is Western leadership, and will be appreciated by not a few Russians.