Obviously the big news today is the aftermath of last night's terrorist attack in Manchester. I'm trying to break these updates up into more manageable chunks, so you'll find coverage of that story in another update. IRAQ The latest map from Iraq's Ninewa Media Center suggests that the Mosul endgame is really upon us: Green … Continue reading Middle East update: May 23 2017

PHILIPPINES The southern Philippine island/archpelago of Mindanao, marked in red on the map above, is under martial law for the next 60 days, after an attack by the Maute militant group in Marawi City. The Maute group is largely made up of members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which quit its insurgency in 2014, … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: May 23 2017

UNITED KINGDOM Normally I would lead this with whatever lunacy just broke in the Trump mess, but unfortunately something genuinely terrible appears to have happened in Manchester this evening: A number of people have died and others have been injured following a reported explosion at Manchester Arena. Witnesses said they heard two loud bangs, reported … Continue reading World update: May 22 2017

TURKEY You Really Couldn't Make This Shit Up, Exhibit A: Turkey’s Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest Monday with the U.S. ambassador to Ankara over what it said were “lapses of security” during a violent confrontation between protesters and Turkish bodyguards during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington earlier this month. The summoning of the … Continue reading Middle East update: May 22 2017

TRUMP IN RIYADH So today was Donald Trump's big speech on Islam in Riyadh, and much to my disappointment he seems to have stuck to reading a pretty banal foreign policy speech from the teleprompter rather than winging it and offending hundreds of millions of people. Yes, there were offensive things in there, as Juan … Continue reading Americas/Europe update: May 19-21 2017

AFGHANISTAN Afghanistan's vice president, Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, is no longer in Afghanistan. He flew to Turkey on Friday, ostensibly for medical treatment. Now, Dostum probably does need medical treatment. He claims to be diabetic and is rumored to hit the bottle on the regular, so chances are he's not well. But it's likely … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: May 19-21 2017

IRAN Just about everything came up Milhouse Rouhani on Friday. While his final vote count was a little lower than initial estimates (which were north of 60 percent) had indicated, 57 percent is nothing to sneeze at, and more importantly, in an election with 75 percent turnout it's an unmistakeable mandate. The consensus before the election was … Continue reading Middle East update: May 19-21 2017

Folks, I don't really have a big update in me tonight, but I thought you might appreciate the preliminary results from Friday's Iranian presidential election: President Hassan Rouhani has an unassailable lead in Iran's presidential election, an Iranian official source told Reuters on Saturday, citing an early unofficial tally, and is on course to defeat … Continue reading Iran update: May 19 2017

By "world" I mean everything outside the Middle East. Yes, I know the Middle East is part of the "world," but...hey, you come up with the post titles next time. TODAY IN TRUMP What shit hit the fan today, you ask? Well, I don't want to give anything away, but if I were Michael Flynn … Continue reading World update: May 18 2017

This may be all the updating we get to do this evening, and it may be short. The lightning outside my window and my experience with the electricity in this neck of the woods tells me that the power may be going out pretty much anytime now. But there are a couple of stories I'd … Continue reading Middle East update: May 18 2017