ASIA AFGHANISTAN An ISIS suicide bomber killed Nangarhar province's director of religious affairs, Abdul Zaher Haqqani, and his bodyguard in Jalalabad on Wednesday. Late Wednesday night, the Taliban carried out an attack on a police headquarters in Kandahar province in which one police officer was killed, along with all four attackers. INDIA Things are looking up a … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: March 7 2018

SYRIA The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that the Syrian government has captured about 50 percent of Eastern Ghouta, and all it took was 850 or so dead civilians. The rebels' ability to resist may be approaching a tipping point, as the amount of territory pro-government forces have been able to take each day … Continue reading Middle East update: March 7 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN At least two people were killed in Nangarhar province on Tuesday by a sticky bomb attached to a fuel truck. At least three people were wounded, and a number of buildings seem to have been damaged. There's been no claim of responsibility. INDIA Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited India a couple of weeks ago … Continue reading World update: March 6 2018

SYRIA Implementing the last stage of the Aleppo playbook, Russia on Tuesday offered Syrian rebels still in Eastern Ghouta safe passage out of that besieged area to, well, someplace else. And here's the rub--while that deal has worked in the past, with the Russians offering safe passage to Idlib province, that offer is no longer … Continue reading Middle East update: March 6 2018

ASIA PAKISTAN The broad realignment of South Asian geopolitics is really going full-bore these days. There's the burgeoning US-India relationship that coincides with serious problems in the US-Pakistan relationship, and the reverse is happening in Russia's relations with both countries. The Russia-India relationship remains pretty strong at the moment, but it might not for much … Continue reading World update: March 5 2018

SYRIA All you fans of superfluous American missile strikes might want to start getting ready for Operation Do Something About Syria, Volume 2: The Trump administration has considered new military action against the Syrian government in response to reports of ongoing chemical weapons use, officials said, raising the prospect of a second U.S. strike on … Continue reading Middle East update: March 5 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Despite a stark absence of any evidence to support his case, reformed* Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar insists that he can play an important role in bringing the Taliban to the table for peace talks. He claims to already be communicating with Taliban leaders and has been using his own experience as a rebel-turned-whatever … Continue reading World update: March 3-4 2018

SYRIA Independent monitors, including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, say that the Syrian government and its allies have captured between 10 and 25 percent of Eastern Ghouta in their latest ground offensive, which began on Wednesday. They're close to cutting the suburb in two, as you can see: Amid this offensive both the government and … Continue reading Middle East update: March 3-4 2018

EUROPE RUSSIA The Russian government on Friday angrily rejected claims from the Trump administration that its fancy new nuclear weapons that promise to destroy humanity even better than the old ones actually violate international treaties. For the Russians, ironically, it's America's decision to abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 that's partly motivating their decision … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: March 2 2018