ASIA ARMENIA Armenian voters will get to vote on Sunday in the country's first national election since Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's "Velvet Revolution" upended Armenian politics earlier this year. Pashinyan has been governing without a stable majority since then, though that's expected to change after Sunday when his My Step party is expected to pull … Continue reading World update: December 7 2018

SYRIA Both the US State Department and the British Foreign Office are now accusing the Syrian government and Russia of carrying out last month's apparent chlorine gas attack in western Aleppo in order to frame rebels. The goal, according to this scenario, was to undermine the Idlib ceasefire agreement. The one that, uh, Russia negotiated … Continue reading Middle East update: December 7 2018

EUROPE Hey, you know how we sometimes talk around here about the possibility that European governments will get so sick of extra-territorial US sanctions that they'll start thinking about dumping the dollar as the international reserve currency? Well, uh, check this out: Plans to reduce European Union dependence on the US dollar – and so … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: December 5-6 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Taliban fighters killed at least four people, three of them civilians, in a raid on a police checkpoint in Herat province late Tuesday. Insurgents, either Taliban or ISIS, also kidnapped the head of a local TV station in Nangarhar province, killing his driver in the process. With peace talks potentially looming, the US … Continue reading Asia/Africa: December 5-6 2018

SYRIA In a major development in the cleanup operation against ISIS in Deir Ezzor province, Syrian Democratic Forces fighters have reportedly broken through ISIS defenses into Hajin, the largest Syrian town still under ISIS control. The SDF now controls part of the town, though you can probably expect a major ISIS counterattack to be forthcoming. … Continue reading Middle East update: December 5-6 2018

EUROPE RUSSIA Mike Pompeo's visit to the NATO foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday produced a rare bit of common ground between the US and the rest of the alliance over alleged Russian violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty: After a meeting of senior U.S., Canadian, and European diplomats at NATO in Brussels on Tuesday, … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: December 4 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN During his confirmation hearing for his appointment to head US Central Command on Tuesday, Marine Corps Lt. General Kenneth McKenzie told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the casualty rate among Afghan security forces is "not going to be sustainable." More than 28,000 Afghan forces have been killed since 2015, and the rate … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: December 4 2018

SYRIA US Syria envoy James Jeffrey told reporters in DC on Tuesday that the US wouldn't mind seeing the United Nations impose a no-fly zone over Syria similar to the one the US imposed over parts of Iraq after the Gulf War. He did not explain how on earth he would expect that to happen. … Continue reading Middle East update: December 4 2018

OPEC OPEC members are meeting in Vienna on Thursday, and most expectations are that they'll agree on a 500,000 barrel per day cut in oil production in order to boost prices. If they do it probably won't go over well with Donald Trump, and OPEC members have to be cognizant of his mood swings as … Continue reading World update: December 3 2018

Happy Hanukkah to those readers who are celebrating! ASIA GEORGIA Thousands of people protested in Tblisi on Sunday due to anger over the result of Wednesday's presidential runoff. New President-elect Salome Zurabishvili, the candidate of the ruling Georgian Dream party, won handily, but the defeated Grigol Vashadze has alleged that the vote was rigged. International observers … Continue reading World update: December 1-2 2018