Although the headlines we’re seeing frequently don’t include them, there’s a lot still going on in the world.
The new Syrian government is murdering Alawites by the thousand. As I predicted it is also persecuting Christians and Druze.
The Houthi harassment of Red Sea shipping continues.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas and, by extension, the Gazans continues unabated.
The “ceasefire” between Iran and Israel is hardly worthy of the name.
The Russians have surrounded Sumy, the seat of Sumy oblast in northeastern Ukraine. They had occupied it early in their campaign against Ukraine but had been driven out by late spring of 2022.
This is one of the things that has griped me about the trope “mostly peaceful”. If you’ve ever read old newspaper coverage of World War II, it is quite obvious how scant the information people on the home front were receiving, how greatly delayed, and the war itself consisted of a series of relatively brief battles (the Battle of the Bulge took 41 days) that punctuated substantial periods of preparation and comparative quiet.
I commend the piece from ACLED in particular to your attention. It describes the statements by both the Houthis and the United States on the Red Sea actions as a “hall of mirrors”.
