TURKEY You Really Couldn't Make This Shit Up, Exhibit A: Turkey’s Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest Monday with the U.S. ambassador to Ankara over what it said were “lapses of security” during a violent confrontation between protesters and Turkish bodyguards during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington earlier this month. The summoning of the … Continue reading Middle East update: May 22 2017

TRUMP IN RIYADH So today was Donald Trump's big speech on Islam in Riyadh, and much to my disappointment he seems to have stuck to reading a pretty banal foreign policy speech from the teleprompter rather than winging it and offending hundreds of millions of people. Yes, there were offensive things in there, as Juan … Continue reading Americas/Europe update: May 19-21 2017

AFGHANISTAN Afghanistan's vice president, Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, is no longer in Afghanistan. He flew to Turkey on Friday, ostensibly for medical treatment. Now, Dostum probably does need medical treatment. He claims to be diabetic and is rumored to hit the bottle on the regular, so chances are he's not well. But it's likely … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: May 19-21 2017

IRAN Just about everything came up Milhouse Rouhani on Friday. While his final vote count was a little lower than initial estimates (which were north of 60 percent) had indicated, 57 percent is nothing to sneeze at, and more importantly, in an election with 75 percent turnout it's an unmistakeable mandate. The consensus before the election was … Continue reading Middle East update: May 19-21 2017

Folks, I don't really have a big update in me tonight, but I thought you might appreciate the preliminary results from Friday's Iranian presidential election: President Hassan Rouhani has an unassailable lead in Iran's presidential election, an Iranian official source told Reuters on Saturday, citing an early unofficial tally, and is on course to defeat … Continue reading Iran update: May 19 2017

By "world" I mean everything outside the Middle East. Yes, I know the Middle East is part of the "world," but...hey, you come up with the post titles next time. TODAY IN TRUMP What shit hit the fan today, you ask? Well, I don't want to give anything away, but if I were Michael Flynn … Continue reading World update: May 18 2017

This may be all the updating we get to do this evening, and it may be short. The lightning outside my window and my experience with the electricity in this neck of the woods tells me that the power may be going out pretty much anytime now. But there are a couple of stories I'd … Continue reading Middle East update: May 18 2017

I'm going to be completely honest, and I don't think I'm the only one feeling this way, but I am constantly in a state of moderate confusion lately. Donald Trump's ability to pile one ridiculous fuckup on top of another has exceeded my ability to keep track of them all. Right now, as far as … Continue reading Americas Donald Trump update, May 16-17 2017

AFGHANISTAN Afghan forces were able to recapture the Qala-i-Zal district of Kunduz province on Tuesday, ten days after it fell to the Taliban. Meanwhile, in eastern Afghanistan, ISIS claimed credit for an attack on the state TV broadcaster in the city of Jalalabad on Wednesday, in which six people were killed in addition to the … Continue reading Asia/Africa/Europe update: May 16-17 2017

TURKEY We're going to start with a story about Turkey that didn't happen in Turkey, or anywhere near Turkey. Rather, it happened in Washington, DC, on Tuesday: Supporters and opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey engaged in a violent confrontation outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington on Tuesday night. Nine people were … Continue reading Middle East update: May 16-17 2017