The mystery of what, if anything, is hiding in King Tut's tomb got a little more interesting on Friday, when Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities reported that infrared scans of the tomb showed a variation in temperature along one part of its northern wall. The most obvious explanation for a temperature variation like that is that … Continue reading It really looks like there’s a hidden chamber in King Tut’s tomb

Yemen, a country that generally sees a tropical cyclone show up once every decade or so, looks like it may be about to see its second one in about a week. Cyclone Megh hit Socotra Island yesterday and looks poised to make landfall somewhere between central and western Yemen, probably tomorrow. Megh was a category … Continue reading Yemen’s Take Two

Now that both the UK Prime Minister and US President are on record talking about the "possibility" that Kogalymavia Flight 9268 was brought down by a bomb, we have to treat that possibility at least somewhat seriously. To be sure, the fact that the US and UK governments appear to agree on a thing does … Continue reading ISIS and Kogalymavia Flight 9268

Over at The New York Times, Thomas Erdbrink (hey, at least it wasn't David Sanger) lays down some mad truth about the Iran deal: Anyone who hoped that Iran’s nuclear agreement with the United States and other powers portended a new era of openness with the West has been jolted with a series of increasingly … Continue reading Iran deal dead, say people who never wanted it in the first place

I make a lot of jokes about Ben Carson and how he's a few cards short of a full deck. But look, the guy was a freaking neurosurgeon, so he must know something about something, right? Here's what I think: the fact that people are justifiably questioning Ben Carson's intelligence despite the fact that he's … Continue reading Does Ben Carson’s strangeness matter?

I'm working on a piece for pay, and not feeling all that well to boot, so in the absence of any more blogging from me today I would encourage you to check out this piece on the India-Pakistan relationship from Mark Krepon at Arms Control Wonk. Although the Iran talks have sucked up most of … Continue reading A good read on India-Pakistan

In addition to being the 36th anniversary of the Iranian seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, today is also the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing Israeli named Yigal Amir in Tel Aviv. There are remembrances of Rabin all over the place, many/most of them wondering if his death … Continue reading Mythologizing and demonizing the deceased

The British government announced today that it's "delaying" flights from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport to the UK on account of how that Russian jet that crashed in the Sinai over the weekend "may well have been brought down by an explosive device." The two most obvious explanations for this move are panic and prudence. You … Continue reading US, UK both suggesting that Kogalymavia Flight 9268 was bombed (UPDATED)