Amid the human suffering, you have to respect the irony inherent in the fact that this is as bleak a point as we've seen in Syria's five and a half year-long civil war, and we've come to it as a direct result of a grand ceasefire announced by the US and Russia just a little … Continue reading He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown

A nearly two-year Dutch investigation into the 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine has concluded, and please consider sitting down before you proceed, that Russia and its rebel proxies did the deed. This is...not surprising, though it's nice to finally have some investigative findings backing up the accusation: "Based on the … Continue reading MH17 investigation points finger at Russia

If you're looking for commentary on last night's debate, I don't have much for you. To any right-minded human being Donald Trump looked like a heavy-breathing, interrupting, gibberish-spewing moron--seriously, you try to figure out what this means--and that, of course, means that Trump's base probably thinks he kicked ass. Trump's problem is that, while there … Continue reading The punch not thrown

As expected, once-and-would-be-future Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has opted to heed the Supreme Leader's "advice" and steer clear of next year's presidential election: Iran's hard-line former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday he won't run in next year's presidential election, ending weeks of speculation after the country's supreme leader discouraged his candidacy. Ahmadinejad could have posed … Continue reading And it’s settled then

It's only taken five years, but the rest of the world seems to have had an epiphany about Syria: As the bombs continue to fall on Aleppo, a new reality is descending on Syria: the long-held belief that the conflict there will only end with a political solution might not hold true. Russia now says the conflict is … Continue reading Better late than never, I guess

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose hypothetical "political comeback" has been one of the more interesting stories in the run up to next year's Iranian presidential election, had a whole lot of cold water dumped on his plans today: Ayatollah Khamenei made the statement about Mr. Ahmadinejad during a lecture for seminary students at his office. He was … Continue reading Who’s left to run against Rouhani?

Many people are wondering what time the debate is tonight. In fact, people regularly come up to me and say, "Derek, you're obviously very intelligent, so intelligent, and handsome! Can you tell us what time the debate is tonight, because the losers in the mainstream media"--and they're just the worst, aren't they? vile, wretched human … Continue reading DEBATE 2016: Time, channels, and more

I know it's Friday night so I'm shouting into the void, but I spent last week and much of this week covering the aborted--well, that's not totally fair; "aborted" suggests that it had a shot of actually coming to fruition at some point--ceasefire in Syria, and now that it's all over but the literal shouting … Continue reading A bad end to a bad week

India and Pakistan in December: India’s prime minister made a surprise stop Friday in Pakistan to meet his counterpart in a richly symbolic gesture likely to add momentum to a tentative reconciliation process between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif embraced India’s Narendra Modi at the airport in the eastern city of Lahore. They … Continue reading That’s not going to go over well

Today in New York, a thin-skinned, narcissistic autocrat with dangerously violent tendencies tried to burnish his dubious foreign policy credentials by meeting with a high-profile foreign political leader. Oh, and Donald Trump was there too: Egypt's president has been told the US would be a "loyal friend" to Egypt if Donald Trump is elected president, … Continue reading Like looking in a mirror