Ukraine continues to be under-covered, which isn't really anybody's fault given what's happening in Iraq and in Gaza, again, but it still unfortunate. Barring some dramatic military move by Russia, it seems like the separatist movement is all but finished; the most important rebel stronghold, Donetsk, is reportedly on the verge of falling to Kiev, … Continue reading You would think that a militia flying a Nazi flag in Ukraine would get more attention

Iraq may not be heading for a coup after all: After two days of defiance and the deployment of special security units around the Iraqi capital that raised the specter of a coup, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki on Tuesday appeared to back away from his implied threat of using military force to secure his … Continue reading Good News Watch II: Iraq

Megan McArdle thinks that the country would have been better off if Hillary Clinton had been elected president. The title of her column today at Bloomberg View, "When Obama Beat Hillary, We All Lost," couldn't be clearer. McArdle contends that Clinton would have been more cautious in dealing with Republicans, been satisfied with limited progress … Continue reading Megan McArdle tells a tall tale

Good news is hard to come by these days, so let's savor whatever we can get: Two doctors in Liberia will be the first Africans to receive an experimental treatment for Ebola that has been previously only been used on two Americans and a Spaniard, Liberian officials announced on Monday. The decision comes on the … Continue reading Good News Watch: Ebola

Late last week, fighters affiliated with ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra reportedly pulled out of the town of Arsal, located in northeastern Lebanon near its border with Syria, after holing up there for five days and engaging in heavy fighting with Lebanese forces. At least 42 civilians were killed in the fighting along with 17 Lebanese … Continue reading Lebanon’s latest brush with Syria’s civil war

Thanks to some incredible investigative work by The Economist, new information has emerged about the Iranian people: apparently, they have sex. With each other. On the regular, even: An 82-page document recently issued by Iran’s parliamentary research department is stark in its findings. Not only are young adults sexually active, with 80% of unmarried females … Continue reading Five bizarre facts about Iranians

You may recall that a year ago this week (August 14 to be exact) the Egypt's coup interim government massacred about 600 or so pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in two protester camps in Cairo, and then followed up by killing another couple hundred over the next few days. Well, now that Egypt is under a new, … Continue reading Sisi’s Egypt has a great human rights record because SHUT UP, that’s why

So there's a little more meat to the preliminary reports that were coming out of Baghdad last night, and if you're a fan of stable transfers of power, it's not good. In an address yesterday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused President Fuad Masum of violating the Iraqi Constitution, first by pushing back the deadline for … Continue reading What’s happening in Iraq?

Not sure what to make of this report by the BBC: In his televised address, Mr Maliki said he intended to take President Masum to court for violating constitutional rules. Mr Maliki's coalition won the most seats in April's elections but parliament has not agreed to give him a third term and President Masum has … Continue reading Is Nouri al-Maliki trying to seize power in Baghdad?