Europe
Cold War déja vu in NATO mega-maneuvers
NATO is just winding up its biggest military exercise since the end of the Cold War—Operation Trident Juncture, involving 36,000 troops from over 30 countries.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Greater Middle East
Syria: anti-ISIS forces advance —despite everything
The new Kurdish-Arab alliance in northern Syria continues to advance into ISIS-held territory—in spite of efforts by virtually all the regional powers to sabotage it.
Mexico
Anarchist bomb blasts in Mexico City?
A group called the "Pagan Sect of the Mountain" claimed responsibility for improvised bomb attacks on Mexico City buses, in a communique filled with anti-civilization rhetoric.
Planet Watch
Obama and the KXL-TPP contradiction
Obama nixed the Keystone XL pipeline a day after announcing he will sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which includes mechanisms for challenging the KXL cancellation.
Afghanistan
UN sees decline in Afghan opium: Pyrrhic victory?
The UN notes a sharp drop in opium cultivation in Afghanistan after years of big increases—but due to drought and desertification, not government eradication efforts.
Southeast Asia
Burma: will ceasefire wind down opium war?
Burma’s regime signs a "national ceasefire" with ethnic rebels in the opium-producing north ahead of historic elections—but the biggest rebel armies didn’t sign on.
Mexico
Mexico: narcos in assassination attempt on ex-gov?
Fernando Moreno Peña, ex-governor of Mexico's narco-stronghold Colima state, survived an assassination attempt. Two predecessors were not so lucky.
Greater Middle East
US sells Turkey ‘smart bombs’ (to use against Kurds)
The Pentagon announces the sale of 900 "smart bombs" to Turkey just as Ankara is preparing to move against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria.
Iran
US embraces Iran as (ironic) ‘peace’ partner in Syria
Iran is invited to the US-backed Vienna "peace" talks on the Syria war—seeming to confirm suspicions that cooperation against ISIS was the real motive behind the nuclear deal.
North Africa
Meanwhile in, um, Benghazi…
Missiles and mortar rounds were fired into a crowd of anti-Islamist demonstrators in central Benghazi, killing six and injuring many more.
Europe
Obama’s nuclear upgrade: Euro-missiles redux?
Revelation of Washington's plan to station missile-capable nuclear warheads in Germany was met with a Russian threat to deploy ballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
Palestine
Bibi’s Holocaust revisionism: media complicit?
The New York Times, in its coverage of Bibi Netanyahu's fictional claims about the Holocaust originating with the Mufti of Jerusalem, gives undue weight to the theory's few proponents.