Shanah Tovah to any readers celebrating the Jewish New Year this evening. SYRIA Strap in and feel the Gs: President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country’s last major rebel stronghold, U.S. officials said, raising the prospects for another retaliatory U.S. military strike as thousands … Continue reading Middle East update: September 8-9 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Defense Secretary James Mattis made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday that included meetings with Afghan leaders to discuss the prospects for peace talks with the Taliban and the Afghan-Pakistan relationship. We're 17 years in and the US defense secretary still has to make unannounced visits for security reasons. It's going great, … Continue reading World update: September 7 2018

SYRIA Folks, I rarely like to toot my own horn when it comes to successful predictions, but if you'll permit me I'm going to do it here. As I predicted, remember you heard it here first, the peacemaking juggernaut that is the Vladimir Putin-Recep Tayyip Erdoğan-Hassan Rouhani triumvirate has once more brought peace and prosperity … Continue reading Middle East update: September 7 2018

EUROPE Perhaps you've heard that yesterday the New York Times published an anonymous op-ed purporting to be from a White House insider asserting that Donald Trump may be non compos mentis and assuring everyone that the Good Republicans in the administration are protecting us from him even as they gleefully work to implement his mostly wretched political … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: September 6 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN After Wednesday's double bombing in Kabul, probably carried out by ISIS, killed 21 people and wounded 89 more, later Wednesday and Thursday saw two likely Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces that left 18 of them dead. Militants killed 10 Afghan soldiers in an attack on a military outpost late Wednesday in Badghis … Continue reading Asia/Oceania/Africa update: September 6 2018

SYRIA CNN's Barbara Starr (who gets a lot of scoops from the Pentagon because she's generally willing to report whatever the Pentagon tells her so take this with a grain of salt) reported Thursday evening that the Russian military has warned the US twice in the past week that it's preparing to attack "militants" in … Continue reading Middle East update: September 6 2018

This evening's updates may be a little less verbose than usual because I'll be out for a while watching some people do a live podcast or something in DC. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. ASIA AFGHANISTAN A double-tap suicide bombing on a wrestling club in Kabul on Wednesday killed at least … Continue reading World update: September 5 2018

This evening's updates may be a little less verbose than usual because I'll be out for a while watching some people do a live podcast or something in DC. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. SYRIA The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported another day of widespread shelling across Idlib as the … Continue reading Middle East update: September 5 2018

SYRIA While the United Nations Security Council plans to discuss Idlib on Wednesday, the Syrian/Russian offensive there may already have begun on Tuesday as "dozens" of airstrikes were reported across the province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 12 people killed in the strikes but the situation probably doesn't lend itself to accurate information at … Continue reading Middle East update: September 4 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN We'll start where things left off last night, with the announcement that Haqqani Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani has passed. It's unclear when Haqqani died--all we know is that the Taliban announced it on Tuesday morning, citing an illness. The BBC reported him dead back in 2015, and for all we know that report … Continue reading World update: September 4 2018