Iran Reuters is reporting that the Trump administration will impose new sanctions on several Iranian entities, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. Whatever their rhetoric about the nuclear deal, it's clear that Trump's people have come into office looking for an excuse to take an action like this, to quickly get back to the days when … Continue reading Conflict update: February 2 2017

Iran If the Trump administration accomplishes nothing else in its (hopefully only) four years in office, provoking a war with Iran seems to be at the top of its bucket list. How else do you explain the National Security Advisor taking the podium at a White House press briefing and doing this: “Recent Iranian actions, … Continue reading Conflict update: February 1 2017

After yesterday's marathon catch-up session, I'm going to try to keep this one relatively short. Ukraine Fighting in and around the town of Avdiivka, in the northern part of Donetsk, has reached a level serious enough to move the UN Security Council to express its collective "grave concern." At least eight people were reportedly killed … Continue reading Conflict update: January 31 2017

Iraq Purely by coincidence, my absence from regular blogging coincided with the planned lull in the Mosul operation. With eastern Mosul having been liberated just before I checked out, the Iraqis have been laying the groundwork for the eventual assault on the western half of the city. Iraq forces have been actively liberating villages north … Continue reading Conflict update: January 30 2017

Syria With everybody's eyes on the peace conference in Kazakhstan, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham has made a big move to consolidate its control of the rebellion in Idlib: Heavy fighting erupted in northwestern Syria on Tuesday between a powerful jihadist organization and more moderate rebel groups, threatening to further weaken the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad … Continue reading Conflict update: January 24 2017

Iraq Stop me if you've heard this one: Iraq has fully retaken eastern Mosul from ISIS. It seems like somebody has made this same announcement every day for the past week, and that's because somebody has made this same announcement every day for the past week. But you're dealing with different somebodies who have different … Continue reading Conflict Update: January 23 2017

So our guests left a short time ago, whereas I thought they were staying another day for some reason. Leaving on Sunday makes a lot more sense, now that I think about it, but anyway that leaves me free to do a little Bad News Digest tonight. Iraq OK, the news isn't all bad. Eastern … Continue reading Conflict Update: January 22 2017

Site Update The rest of January is going to be a difficult one for regular blogging. We have guests in from out of town who are participating in tomorrow's march in DC, and while things will return to normal early next week, I'll be traveling at the end of the week for family reasons. Tonight's … Continue reading Conflict update: January 20 2017

The Gambia Private Citizen Yahya Jammeh, whose presidency still exists only in his own imagination, began his day by finding out that his vice president, Isatou Njie Saidy, had quit. He spent his day hearing about the inauguration of new Gambian President Adama Barrow in the Gambian embassy in Senegal (which is Gambian soil, technically) … Continue reading Conflict update: January 19 2017

NOTHING MATTERS LOL ♫ It's the final countdown... ♫ Marking another milestone for a changing planet, scientists reported on Wednesday that the Earth reached its highest temperature on record in 2016, trouncing a record set only a year earlier, which beat one set in 2014. It is the first time in the modern era of … Continue reading Conflict update: January 18 2017