EUROPE EUROPEAN UNION Donald Trump seems to be itching for a trade war with the European Union, and the EU says it will give him one if it comes to that: Brussels has warned that it stands ready to retaliate and potentially open up a transatlantic trade war if the US delivers on apparent threats … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: January 29 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Monday morning's attack on the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul left 11 Afghan soldiers dead. ISIS later claimed credit for the attack, which may have been carried out to try to mitigate some of the boost the Taliban gained after its devastating attack in Kabul on Saturday. The Taliban have described … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: January 29 2018

SYRIA Airwars has produced its first civilian casualty count of the Afrin conflict: A new rolling assessment published by Airwars has so far tracked 24 claimed civilian casualty events within Afrin blamed on Turkey – and a further nine events attributed to Kurdish forces.   From the start of operations on January 20th to January … Continue reading Middle East update: January 29 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN A Taliban attack in Kabul on Saturday killed at least 103 people at last count. The attackers packed a bomb into an ambulance and were able to get past at least one security checkpoint before detonating their device in a crowded area of the city. It's the deadliest single attack in Kabul since … Continue reading World update: January 27-28 2018

SYRIA Fighting in Afrin is still centered around Bursaya hill, a strategic high-ground position that could enable someone to, say, position mortars to target other parts of Afrin, or to target the nearby Turkish city of Kilis, depending on that person's interests. On Sunday it appeared as though Turkish and allied Free Syrian Army forces … Continue reading Middle East update: January 27-28 2018

Tonight's update is going to be condensed again. News is lighter than usual, and anyway I've been having some trouble with WordPress that is making it difficult to blog. Your heart is breaking for me, I know. MIDDLE EAST SYRIA Syrian opposition negotiators announced just this evening that they will not attend Russia's upcoming Syrian … Continue reading World update: January 26 2018

DOOMSDAY CLOCK The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved us all a little closer to Armageddon on Thursday, bumping their Doomsday Clock from 2 minutes and 30 second to midnight to a flat 2 minutes to midnight due to concerns about climate change, North Korea, and nuclear arms more generally. This is as close as … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: January 25 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN The Chinese government is denying reports from Russian and other media that it's planning to build a military base in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province. So I guess that, uh, settles it...? PAKISTAN American and Pakistani officials are peddling two different accounts of Wednesday's drone strike that reportedly killed at least one Haqqani Network bigshot … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: January 25 2018

SYRIA The Turkish government essentially threatened to go to war with the United States on Thursday, warning US forces embedded with the Kurds around Manbij that if they don't skeddadle they could be in for a very bad time. This is likely bluster--Ankara and Washington don't get along very well, but Turkey actually attacking American … Continue reading Middle East update: January 25 2018

There doesn't seem to be all that much news today. My theory is that most of the people who normally make news are at Davos. Here's the thing: I don't give a shit about Davos, and I particularly don't give a shit about the stuff that happens at Davos that gets made public. Add to … Continue reading World update: January 24 2018