Russia moved very quickly today to begin carrying out airstrikes inside Syria. First, Vladimir Putin got authorization from his parliament for the use of force in Syria: Earlier on Wednesday, Russia's upper house of parliament granted President Vladimir Putin authorisation to deploy the country's air force to Syria, according to the head of presidential administration. … Continue reading Russia strikes Syria, maybe (?) reveals its plans

It turns out that Pope Francis had a personal audience with Kim Davis, better known as Mike Huckabee's campaign mascot the nutty county clerk lady in Kentucky what refuses to sign off on same sex marriages despite the Supreme Court making those marriages just as legal as opposite marriage. Davis said that "just knowing the … Continue reading How to get your liberal heart broken, Pope Francis edition

The important city of Kunduz, in Afghanistan, fell to the Taliban yesterday, the culmination of a lengthy Taliban offensive in Kunduz Province that stretches all the way back to the spring but that had seemed to be petering out over the summer in the face of a government counter-offensive (one that now appears to have … Continue reading Kunduz is your periodic reminder that Afghanistan is still A Thing

"Gunfire and explosions" are probably the two last things you'd want to hear on the streets of a city that just survived an attempted coup, but that's what people are hearing in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou. It appears as though the effort to persuade Burkina Faso's presidential guard to disarm has shifted from talking to … Continue reading Not what you’d like to hear

Rand "No, Not As In 'Ayn Rand'" Paul is polling at a whopping 2.4 percent in the Republican primary, behind such other noteworthy People Who Will Never Be President as Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie. Next week he plans to "turn his attention" to raising money...for his Senate reelection campaign. And today we found out … Continue reading And another one is about to bite the dust

At LobeLog today, I look ahead to the possibility that Turkey's November 1 snap election, a do over for its inconclusive June election, will itself prove inconclusive, as recent polling suggests it will: Erdogan’s plan seems to be that, by increasing the violence with PKK, AKP can put together a new majority by peeling voters … Continue reading Looking forward to another inconclusive election

There were so many thinkpieces spawned yesterday about the big Putin-Obama UNGA meeting (OMG PUTIN AND OBAMA TALKED TO EACH OTHER) that I gave up reading them after about 4 or 5. Add in the detailed analyses of their dueling speeches to the General Assembly (OMG DUELING SPEECHES) and the whole news and analysis thing … Continue reading Obama and Putin talk past each other on Ukraine, Syria

If you were watching Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's speech to the UN General Assembly earlier today, you got to see him spend a relatively large part of his speech taking Saudi Arabia to task over last week's terrible Hajj stampede. The death toll from that disaster now appears to be well over 1000, despite initial … Continue reading This Saudi-Iran Hajj argument is turning ugly

Africa Is A Country's Oumar Ba and Daniel Eizenga have written a very useful summary of the failed coup in Burkina Faso that I highly recommend for anybody who's interested in that story. I find this story fascinating not because the coup failed, or even because it failed so quickly and so completely, but because … Continue reading What happened in Burkina Faso last week, and what comes next