ASIA KYRGYZSTAN The Kyrgyz government shut down an opposition-owned TV network on Tuesday, just a few hours after ordering two independent journalists and a human rights activist to pay around $430,000 in a previously awarded libel settlement in one lump sum rather than over time. So if you had 2017 in your office pool as … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: December 20 2017

SYRIA Overnight airstrikes killed 19 civilians in the rebel-held Idlib village of Maar Shureen, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Russia denied involvement, which means it was likely the Syrian air force that carried out the attack. Witnesses allege that this was a double-tap strike, with a second bombing following shortly after the first … Continue reading Middle East update: December 20 2017

EUROPE RUSSIA Both Russia and China are unhappy with being labeled American "competitors" in the new National Security Strategy, though they're handling it in different ways: Officials in Russia and China pushed back on Tuesday against the characterization of their countries as threats to the United States in a new national security doctrine published by … Continue reading Europe/Americas: December 19 2017

ASIA KASHMIR Two Kashmiri separatists and a civilian were killed Tuesday in a gun battle between the separatists and Indian forces in a village in southern Kashmir. MYANMAR Myanmar authorities arrested two Reuters journalists a week ago on allegations that they violated the country's Official Secrets Act somehow. Apart from the obvious implications for journalistic … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: December 19 2017

ISIS While American officials are pushing the line that most ISIS fighters have perished on the Syrian-Iraqi battlefield over the past several months, BuzzFeed reporters investigating the situation at the Syrian-Turkish border say that the story isn't quite so neat or comforting: Interviews with smugglers and human traffickers, carried out over the summer and fall, … Continue reading Middle East update: December 19 2017

EUROPE RUSSIA I missed this piece a couple of days ago because, well, because I don't read Newsweek very often, but I stumbled upon it today and I was reminded why I don't read Newsweek very often: The actual piece, to its credit, only argues that Putin is preparing in case of World War III, but that's not … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: December 18 2017

ASIA AFGHANISTAN ISIS attacked a training ground for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security in Kabul on Monday. Fortunately nobody apart from the attackers appears to have been killed. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sacked Balkh Governor Atta Muhammad Nur on Monday. Technically Ghani's people say he accepted Atta's resignation--which must come as news to Atta, who's … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: December 18 2017

IRAQ The Kurdistan Regional Government says that Baghdad is building up forces southwest of Erbil in preparation for a renewed military offensive against the Kurds. Baghdad denies this claim, but it's worth noting that the dispute over the Kurdistan independence referendum has never really been resolved, just frozen. Baghdad still wants the referendum's results "cancelled" … Continue reading Middle East update: December 18 2017

EUROPE FAR-RIGHT Leaders of Europe's various Nazi cosplayer parties gathered in Prague on Saturday to praise Donald Trump and denounce the European Union. That must have been a real fun time. They wanted to make it clear to people that they "are not xenophobes" (a real thing that Marine Le Pen said), they just hate … Continue reading Europe/Americas update: December 16-17 2017

ASIA AFGHANISTAN Two separate Taliban attacks on Sunday left at least 12 people dead. An assault on a police checkpoint in Helmand province killed at least 11 Afghan police officers (other accounts have the figure higher than that), while a suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Kandahar killed one civilian bystander. Elsewhere, fighting in … Continue reading Asia/Africa update: December 16-17 2017