The U.S. is pulling back from the U.N. Russia, China, and Qatar are filling the void. This year, while reporting in Geneva, I heard about a revealing meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council that took place in the city this spring. Diplomats told me this wasn’t the only time in recent months that representatives of those countries cited American funding cuts to justify what seem like convenient changes to how the U.N. conducts business. China and Cuba, along with other countries like Iran, Russia and Venezuela, have repeatedly suggested scaling back human rights investigations. But since taking office, Trump has upended its operations by withdrawing from the Human Rights Council and other agencies, and freezing funding for others.