FRANCE France's runoff election is this Sunday, and active campaigning ended today, so there shouldn't be any more major developme-- With mere minutes to go before the end of active campaigning in France’s presidential election on Friday evening, front-runner Emmanuel Macron’s campaign released a statement saying it had been the victim of a “massive” computer … Continue reading Conflict update: May 5 2017

UNITED KINGDOM That big emergency meeting that the Queen made her staff attend at Buckingham Palace this morning, the one that sent your social media feeds into a tizzy? It was to announce that Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, her husband of almost 70 (!) years...is retiring from public life this fall. Which, I … Continue reading Conflict update: May 4 2017

WELL, AT LEAST HE'S BEING HONEST Rex Tillerson gave a talk at the State Department today and I think he might have said the quiet parts loud: “I think it is really important that all of us understand the difference between policy and values,” the secretary of state, a former oil executive, said as part … Continue reading Conflict update: May 3 2017

AFGHANISTAN UPDATE/BREAKING: Right after I hit post on this, as often happens, I saw this Reuters report that a "large explosion" had reportedly occurred in central Kabul, near the American embassy. Al Jazeera is reporting that it was a suicide attack and that there are "several" casualties. Earlier, a suspected Taliban attack in Faryab province late on Monday reportedly killed five … Continue reading Conflict update: May 2 2017

ISRAEL-PALESTINE A potentially significant development on this front took place today: Hamas has unveiled a new political programme softening its stance on Israel by accepting the idea of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in the six-day war of 1967. The new document states that the Islamist movement it is not seeking war … Continue reading Conflict update: May 1 2017

COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS The Trump administration's commitment to human rights is so vast, so resolute, that its UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, strong-armed the UN Security Council into holding a special session on the topic just a couple of weeks ago. How is America championing human rights today? Let's check: When President Trump called President Rodrigo Duterte … Continue reading Conflict update: April 29-30 2017

NORTH KOREA This is kind of late-breaking so I don't have much detail, but North Korea tested a ballistic missile of some kind early Saturday morning (local time). The test appears to have failed, but failure is just another step toward success, or something. This is definitely a new provocative step by Pyongyang, but as provocations … Continue reading Conflict update: April 28 2017

SYRIA The cause of the explosion that happened at Damascus International Airport this morning has (more or less) been revealed: An Israeli minister has appeared to confirm that Israel struck a Hezbollah arms supply hub in Syria on Thursday close to the airport in Damascus where weapons from Tehran are regularly sent by commercial and … Continue reading Conflict update: April 27 2017

SYRIA UPDATE: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting that there's been an explosion and fire at Damascus International Airport. No cause has been suggested. As promised, the French government has produced proof that Bashar al-Assad's government was behind the April 4 chemical weapons attack in Khan Shaykhun--and as expected, it's somewhat less than meets … Continue reading Conflict update, April 26 2017

SYRIA This morning, Turkish aircraft struck Kurdish targets in Iraq's Sinjar region and around the town of Derika (also known as Dayrik and al-Malikiyah) in northeastern Syria. The Syrian YPG militia says that 20 of its fighters were killed in the strikes, while Turkey claims that it killed 70 "militants" across both targets. The Iraqi … Continue reading Conflict update: April 25 2017