SYRIA Russian media is reporting that at least seven Russian aircraft were destroyed on December 31 by rebel shelling at Khmeimim airbase, just south of Latakia. If true, it's Russia's biggest loss of materiel in one incident in their 2+ year long Syrian intervention. It also suggests some rebel movement in northwestern Syria that's gone otherwise … Continue reading Middle East update: January 3 2018

We're going to ease back into things after the long holiday break. As usual when I take an extended break I'm not going to even attempt to run down everything that happened while I was gone. We'll cover what's happened the past couple of days with a few scattered looks at things that happened prior … Continue reading World update: January 1-2 2018

We're going to ease back into things after the long holiday break. As usual when I take an extended break I'm not going to even attempt to run down everything that happened while I was gone. We'll cover what's happened the past couple of days with a few scattered looks at things that happened prior … Continue reading Middle East update: January 1-2 2018

While I never say never around here, I feel pretty strongly that tonight's updates will be attwiw's final ones for 2017. We're hosting Christmas here and then traveling to visit family, so I need a bit of time to prepare and then most of next week will just be logistically impossible. The blog won't go … Continue reading World update: December 21 2017

While I never say never around here, I feel pretty strongly that tonight's updates will be attwiw's final ones for 2017. We're hosting Christmas here and then traveling to visit family, so I need a bit of time to prepare and then most of next week will just be logistically impossible. The blog won't go … Continue reading Middle East update: December 21 2017

CONFLICT UPDATE United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres presented a report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday on the nature of war in the year two thousand and seventeen. In addition to warning of the return of nuclear tensions and the cyberwar threat, Guterres spoke about the increasing complexity of modern wars, which may be fewer … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: December 20 2017

ASIA KYRGYZSTAN The Kyrgyz government shut down an opposition-owned TV network on Tuesday, just a few hours after ordering two independent journalists and a human rights activist to pay around $430,000 in a previously awarded libel settlement in one lump sum rather than over time. So if you had 2017 in your office pool as … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: December 20 2017

SYRIA Overnight airstrikes killed 19 civilians in the rebel-held Idlib village of Maar Shureen, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Russia denied involvement, which means it was likely the Syrian air force that carried out the attack. Witnesses allege that this was a double-tap strike, with a second bombing following shortly after the first … Continue reading Middle East update: December 20 2017

EUROPE RUSSIA Both Russia and China are unhappy with being labeled American "competitors" in the new National Security Strategy, though they're handling it in different ways: Officials in Russia and China pushed back on Tuesday against the characterization of their countries as threats to the United States in a new national security doctrine published by … Continue reading Europe/Americas: December 19 2017