Terrorist bombings at a subway station in Maalbeek and at Zaventem Airport have killed at least 34 people and injured another 170. Two bombs, at least one of which is believed to have been a suicide bombing, struck the airport early this morning, and an hour later another bomb hit the subway station. There are … Continue reading Terror attacks in Brussels kill at least 34, story developing

First off, belated Nowruz greetings to all of you. As people learn more about Iran I find that there are more and more Nowruz "explainers" out there for people to read, though I'm still partial to the one I wrote back in 2013. This one from NPR is nice, though. Today is also the 13th … Continue reading Nowruz, and the Iraq War at 13

Mosul Dam, which was never structurally sound to begin with, depends on constant maintenance in order to keep it in one piece. Because Iraq is at war with ISIS and is run by a government that's unable to accomplish even the more critically urgent tasks either out of incompetence or political gridlock, that maintenance isn't … Continue reading A completely avoidable catastrophe

Yes, I'm writing this so I don't have to pay attention to the Republican debate. Sue me. This is a few weeks old, but I've been meaning to flag Dexter Filkins's January 22 New Yorker piece on the Pakistani Taliban (the Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or TTP), perpetrators of many terrorist attacks including the December 2014 … Continue reading Pakistani Taliban, Pakistani problem

I just posted a primer for tomorrow's Iranian elections at Medium: The parliamentary elections are important  — a less hardline parliament means more space for Rouhani to implement his domestic agenda (although even an outright reformist parliament would be subject to being overriden by the Guardians’ Council and the Supreme Leader), and a more hardline parliament … Continue reading My Iran election primer, at Medium

The Syrian opposition finally agreed to the ceasefire that's supposed to start in the next couple of days, albeit on a temporary basis: Syria's opposition indicated on Wednesday it was ready for a two-week truce in Syria, saying it was a chance to test the seriousness of the other side's commitment to a U.S.-Russian plan … Continue reading Breaking the ceasefire before it even starts

Unless you're a regular eBay shopper, here's something you may have missed: That's Egyptian president/dictator/pharaoh Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and yes, somebody was trying to sell him yesterday, at least for a few hours before eBay took the listing down. Shockingly there was at least one person somewhere in the world who was willing to pay … Continue reading One way to get rid of a dictator