World View: Iraq, Islamic State and the West prepare for the Great Battle for Mosul
Contents: France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle begins assault on ISIS in Mosul; UN says Mosul could be ‘largest man-made disaster in many years’

Contents: France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle begins assault on ISIS in Mosul; UN says Mosul could be ‘largest man-made disaster in many years’

Contents: ISIS losing territory in Iraq and Syria; Pyrrhic victory over ISIS could create a ‘terrorist diaspora’

Contents: Russian warplanes drop phosphorus bombs and bunker buster bombs on Aleppo; Comparisons of Syria civil war to Sri Lanka civil war; US, UK, UN officials accuse Syria and Russia of barbarism and war crimes

Contents: Writer Nahed Hattar, accused of blasphemy, gunned down in Amman, Jordan; Nahed Hattar shooting exposes Jordan’s secularist vs Muslim Brotherhood fault line

Contents: Syria’s al-Assad goes for the kill, turning Aleppo and civilians to bloody rubble; Responses to reader comments

Contents: Turkey’s Erdogan blames the EU for reneging on the refugee deal; With Turkey ‘left alone,’ Erdogan announces refugee plan conflicting with US plans; A major new flood of refugees starting to flee from Mosul in Iraq

Contents: New terrorist attack in Kashmir threatens India-Pakistan retaliation; Russia accuses US of intentionally striking Syria’s army to support ISIS

Contents: Tunisia remains the #1 source of foreign fighters for ISIS; Tunisia’s town of Ben Guerdane on Libya border exemplifies problems; Escalating economic protests across Tunisia threaten country’s stability; France’s new ambassador to Tunisia commits huge gaffe

Contents: Syria blocks humanitarian aid to Aleppo; Report: Turkey will build ‘residential cities’ in Syria buffer zone

Contents: UK politicians debate the 2011 Libya intervention; Libya and Syria illustrate the intervention dilemma for policy makers

Contents: As Syria ceasefire begins, Bashar al-Assad quickly rejects it; Confusion grows over role of al-Nusra Front in US-Russia peace plan

Contents: Turkey presses to establish a ‘no-fly zone’ in northern Syria; Turkey’s forces and Kurdish forces set to clash in Manbij; US and Russia once again announced a peace deal in Syria

Contents: Syrian regime drops chlorine-laded barrel bomb on Aleppo market; From 2013: The history of how Syria’s Bashar al-Assad created ISIS

Contents: Turkey sends more tanks into Syria in ‘New Phase’ of military action; Syrian rebels capture 14 villages near Hama in four days; Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian army once again close to collapse

Contents: Uzbekistan’s dictator president Karimov suffers stroke, threatening Central Asia stability; Brief generational history of Uzbekistan

Contents: Turkey’s invasion of Syria continues, bombing Kurdish targets; America may be forced to choose between Turkey and Kurds

Contents: Hungary may build a second ‘massive’ fence to block migrants from Serbia; Greece makes contingency plans for 180,000 more migrants; Increasing anger in Turkey threatens the EU-Turkey migrant deal

Contents: Turkey’s PM declares ‘all-out war’ after new PKK truck bomb attack; After 50 days of violence, unrest in India-controlled Kashmir is unabated

Contents: Turkey’s ‘Operation Euphrates Shield’ turns into full-scale invasion of Syria; US turns on Syrian Kurds as they’re attacked by Turkey; Debka: Israel in military action against ISIS in Egypt’s Sinai

Contents: US VP Biden snubbed by Turkey’s angry president Erdogan; North Korea lays land mines to prevent soldiers from defecting; UN Security Council has emergency meeting on North Korea missile tests

Contents: Kurds, Assad forces, US and ISIS converge in Hasaka, alarming Turkey; Turkey launches rebel army to fight both ISIS and Kurds in Syria

Contents: International Criminal Court gets conviction for ‘cultural genocide’ in Timbuktu Mali; In an embarrassing turnaround, Russia removes its bombers from Iran; Turkey begins to fully enter the war in Syria militarily

Contents: Turkey’s downward spiral continues with massive wedding terror attack; Report: US military moving nuclear weapons from Turkey to Romania; Turkey’s Erdogan announces a complete U-turn on Syria policy

Contents: Stephen K. Bannon is named chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign; Furious UN envoy Staffan de Mistura excoriates Syria’s Bashar al-Assad; Six years of UN envoys and Syrian peace talks

Contents: Russia-Iran airbase agreement further isolates Saudi Arabia; Continuing Mideast realignment: Russia and Iran vs Saudi Arabia; Generational alignments of the world’s religions – hypothesis

Contents: Wild celebrations in Manbij Syria, after major defeat for ISIS; Manbij was known as ‘Little London’ because of British jihadists

Contents: Thailand shocked by 13 bombings in five southern provinces; Any of Thailand’s three major ethnic groups could be the perpetrators

Contents: Fears grow that a new Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent; US forces in Libya may declare victory over ISIS this week

Contents: Pakistan again in shock after bloody terrorist attack in Quetta; The debate in Pakistan: Good terrorists vs Bad terrorists; Violence and unrest increase in India’s Kashmir

Contents: Venezuela’s economic crisis is hitting Cuba hard; Egypt claims that it killed leaders of ISIS branch in Sinai; Video from Sinai’s ISIS branch threatens Rome, Israel and all Jews

Contents: Italy rescues 8,000 migrants in 5 days crossing Mediterranean Sea from Libya; US military in Libya launches airstrikes against ISIS; Russia uses the ‘Grozny Model’ to pursue mass slaughter in Aleppo Syria
Contents: Syria’s Al-Nusra splits with al-Qaeda, becoming Jabhat Fateh al-Sham; Al-Nusra may have learned lessons from failures of ISIS and al-Qaeda in Iraq

Contents: Arab League in chaos as it fails to address Arab existential threats; ASEAN in chaos as it fails to address South China Sea threats; France’s François Hollande declares war on ISIS after terror attack kills priest; Turkey fears that Gulen will flee the United States

Contents: ISIS takes credit for terror attack in Ansbach, southern Germany; Germans in a state of shock after four violent attacks in one week; Knife-wielding massacre near Tokyo Japan kills 19; Germany’s Der Spiegel asks: Is this the Apocalypse Now?

Contents: ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Shia Hazaras in Kabul Afghanistan; Kabul attack targeted Afghanistan’s repressed Hazara minority

Contents: Attempted army coup in Turkey collapses within hours; Extradition of Fethullah Gulen may be linked to reopening Incirlik air base

Contents: Implications of the attempted coup in Turkey; Turkey coup; Protests and violence continue across Indian-governed Kashmir; Nice France terror attack provokes desperate search for solutions

Contents: Increasingly angry China rams Vietnamese boat as tribunal ruling expected; Japan’s election opens the way to repeal ‘pacifism’ constitution clause; US will send 560 more troops to Iraq

Contents: Hard issues prevent full reconciliation between Turkey and Russia; Turkey’s reconciliation with Egypt appears to be unlikely

Contents: Attack on Islam’s holy site in Medina caps end-of-Ramadan jihadist carnage; Bond yields continue to plummet globally into negative territory after Brexit
