I know it's a little early this evening, but I'm beat and so I'm deciding to call it a night barring some major thing happening. ASIA AFGHANISTAN Two incidents of note on Friday. In western Afghanistan's Farah province, Taliban fighters attacked a police outpost, killing six Afghan police officers in a battle that also saw … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: June 30 2017

I know it's a little early this evening, but I'm beat and so I'm deciding to call it a night barring some major thing happening. SYRIA Depending on which account you believe, a major ISIS counterattack in Raqqa on Friday either mostly fizzled out or made substantial territorial gains. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights … Continue reading Middle East update: June 30 2017

TRAVEL BAN The Supreme Court's decision to reinstitute Donald Trump's travel ban isn't going over well in the Middle East, and you can understand why. As it turns out, though the decision did leave exceptions for travelers with "bona fide" connections to the United States, the court, in its inimitable way, decided not to explain … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: June 28-29 2017

ASIA UZBEKISTAN One of Uzbekistan's more charming features is the annual enslavement of much of its population to pick cotton, which remains one of the country's most important products. The World Bank has implemented projects in Uzbekistan that are meant to diversify its agricultural sector away from cotton, but a new Human Rights Watch investigation … Continue reading Asia/Australia/Africa update: June 28-29 2017

SAUDI ARABIA Let's check in on former Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in his definitely totally voluntary and in no way forced retirement. I'm sure he's having a fantastic time: The recently deposed crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Nayef, has been barred from leaving the kingdom and confined to his palace in … Continue reading Middle East update: June 28-29 2017

I'm going to be out for most of the day so I just wanted to run quickly through a couple of big stories. I'll be back for more regular updates tomorrow: UKRAINE/CYBERSPACE A ransomware called "Petya" struck Ukrainian institutions Tuesday morning and seems to be spreading around the world as the day goes on. The … Continue reading (Short) World update: June 27 2017

FYI, this is only going to be a partial update since I'm going to be out most of this afternoon and evening. SYRIA There was a bit more today on the strange White House statement last night regarding Bashar al-Assad's alleged preparations for "another" (assuming you believe there have been others) chemical weapons attack. The … Continue reading Middle East update: June 27 2017

EUROPE CYPRUS Cypriot leaders and UN representatives are meeting in Switzerland on Wednesday for "open-ended" talks to try to settle the island's reunification issues once and for all. As nobody has yet proposed a way to break the main deadlock that currently separates the two sides--Greek Cypriots want Turkey to remove its troops from the … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: June 26 2017

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford is in Afghanistan this week to try to put together a strategy to go along with the decision to send thousands of additional American forces to that country to try to turn around its war with the Taliban. The additional forces should, in theory, … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: June 26 2017

IRAQ The commander of Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service, Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, says the full liberation of Mosul will be over "in a few days," and given that "few" is a pretty vague term, I guess he's probably right. The Iraqis estimate that about 350 ISIS militants remain in the Old City, and Assadi … Continue reading Middle East update: June 26 2017