ASIA AFGHANISTAN The fact that America's intervention in Afghanistan is in year 17 should be bad enough. The only lesson the US foreign policy establishment seems to have learned from Vietnam is that you can't lose if you don't stop fighting, even if the only reason you're still fighting is so you don't have to … Continue reading World update: January 23 2018

SYRIA The Turkish military said on Tuesday that its forces have killed over 260 Kurdish and ISIS fighters in Operation Olive Branch so far. "And" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Similarly, so far in this post I've written over 50 words in English, German, and Tamil. I'm a polyglot! Also, this … Continue reading Middle East update: January 23 2018

INEQUALITY Whatever else may be going on the world, it's nice to see that unfettered crony capitalism is keeping on keeping on: The gap between the super rich and the rest of the world widened last year as wealth continued to be owned by a small minority, Oxfam has claimed.   Some 82% of money … Continue reading World update: January 22 2018

SYRIA Rebel shelling of Damascus's old city on Monday killed at least nine civilians and wounded over 20 more, according to Syrian state TV. And that pretty much does it for Syria, I guess, so let's move o- Oh, right, the other thing. Turkey's invasion of Afrin continues, with Turkish forces and their Free Syrian … Continue reading Middle East update: January 22 2018

GUINEA WORM Thanks in large part to the work of the Carter Foundation, Guinea Worm may soon be a thing of the past. Just 30 cases of the condition were reported in 2017, half of them from a single outbreak in Ethiopia and the rest in isolated parts of Chad. Who says we can't have … Continue reading World update: January 20-21 2018

SYRIA Welp, Turkey finally did it: Turkey said it had begun a ground incursion into the Kurdish enclave in Syria known as Afrin a day after intense aerial bombardment that signalled the opening of hostilities in a new phase of Ankara’s involvement in the war across the border.   The launch of the ground campaign … Continue reading Middle East update: January 20-21 2018

THE TERRORISM COLA WARS Al-Qaeda, or at least individual al-Qaeda branches, are reportedly trying to take advantage of ISIS's misfortunes by undertaking recruitment efforts to poach fighters away from the newer upstart. This phenomenon has been reported in North Africa, the Sahel, Syria, and Yemen. So far it doesn't appear to have borne much fruit, … Continue reading World update: January 19 2018

ASIA KASHMIR At least four people--three of them civilians--were killed on Thursday during an exchange of mortar and gunfire across the Kashmiri line of control. Both Pakistani and Indian forces accused the other side of shooting first. INDIA India, meanwhile, tested a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, and while your immediate inclination might be … Continue reading World update: January 18 2018

MIDDLE EAST ISIS Airwars.org has published their 2017 year-end analysis, and if you're a big fan of America killing civilians in the name of the War on Terror, then you'll want to check it out: Across Iraq and Syria, casualty incidents tied to likely Coalition strikes more than tripled compared to the year before. To … Continue reading Middle East update: January 18 2018

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada reportedly sent negotiators to Islamabad on Monday to meet with representatives of Afghan politician Pir Syed Hamid Gilani about the possibility of restarting peace talks with Kabul. The Afghan government does not appear to have sanctioned the meeting and there's no indication anything came of it. MYANMAR Police in Rakhine state … Continue reading World update: January 17 2018