THIS CAN'T BE REAL, CAN IT My capacity to believe that the current President of the United States will do insanely offensive, ridiculous shit is pretty vast, but I have to say I'm having a hard time believing this actually happened: Angela Merkel will reportedly ignore Donald Trump’s attempts to extricate £300bn from Germany for … Continue reading Conflict update: March 25-26 2017

TRUMP UPDATE Donald Trump had a not so very great day on the health care reform front, but he does seem to finally be circling around a potential deputy for Rex Tillerson at the State Department--or, in other words, a deputy for Jared Kushner's deputy: John J. Sullivan, a prominent Republican lawyer who served in … Continue reading Conflict update: March 24 2017

UNITED KINGDOM The man who killed four people yesterday, when he plowed into dozens of people on London's Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer and attempting to get into parliament, has been identified as 52 year old British citizen Khalid Masood. He was apparently known to British security services, who interviewed him several years … Continue reading Conflict update: March 23 2017

I'm going to be out this evening, so please enjoy (?) this shortened and probably too-early roundup of the day's worst news. UNITED KINGDOM This is still very much a developing story, but at least four people, including the attacker, have been killed in London in what seems to have been an attempted attack on … Continue reading Conflict update: March 22 2017

Because there's so much to cover tonight, you're getting two updates. This one covers everything but the Greater Middle East, the other covers nothing but the Greater Middle East. Enjoy...? COMING SOON TO A SECURITY THEATER NEAR YOU Effective as of yesterday, people trying to fly into the US from airports in Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, … Continue reading Conflict update: March 20-21 2017

Because there's so much to cover, after I missed yesterday, I've broken today's update into two parts. This one will cover just the "Greater" Middle Eastern stuff (including North Africa and Central Asia, in other words), and the other will cover everything else. IRAQ Stop me if you've already heard this: Iraqi forces are "a … Continue reading (Middle East) Conflict update: March 20-21, 2017

BOILING IT DOWN If you're one of those folks who are convinced that climate change is a Chinese hoax or whatever, I've got great news: it snowed in the US last week. Problem solved, am I right? Anyway, for the rest of us, things are not so hot. Or, rather, they're extremely hot, and that's … Continue reading Conflict update: March 18-19 2017

SYRIA First the new story: that Israeli missile alert that sounded in the Jordan valley yesterday evening wasn't caused by any rockets coming from Gaza. Instead, it was caused by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles, fired at a squadron of Israeli planes that were returning from a bombing run in Syrian airspace. The Israeli planes reportedly struck … Continue reading Conflict update: March 17 2017

SYRIA "Dozens" (somewhere north of 50, but a final count probably won't be available until at least tomorrow) of people were killed this evening when an airstrike hit a mosque in the town of al-Jinah, in western Aleppo province, at evening prayer. Upwards of 300 people may have been in the mosque when it was … Continue reading Conflict update: March 16 2017

SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST Well, that was fast. Donald Trump's Muslim Ban 2.0, which is totally not about religion, you guys, just got blocked by a federal judge in Hawaii for being, you know, pretty much about religion. In his ruling, District Judge Derek Watson in particular rejected one of the administration's favorite … Continue reading Conflict update: March 15 2017