Hello,
Here are the five things you need to know today:
NIGERIA. Trump warns of a ‘guns-a-blazing’ intervention.
IRAN. Tehran risks getting bombed, or getting the bomb.
ISRAEL. PALESTINE. The IDF goes to war against itself.
SYRIA. LEBANON. External powers rush to fill a vacuum.
SERBIA. A year from a fatal collapse, claims of cronyism continue.
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NIGERIA. Big game talking
Trump warns of a ‘guns-a-blazing’ intervention.
Donald Trump said the US could send troops to the “disgraced country” of Nigeria if it didn’t move quickly to protect Christians. Abuja said it would welcome help to fight an Islamist insurgency but would need its sovereignty respected.
INTELLIGENCE. Boko Haram and other militants have killed Christians, and Muslims, in large numbers for years, but pressure from Ted Cruz and other GOP Senators has seemingly brought out the interventionist in Trump. With his Africa policies, including an asylum program mostly for whites, already like the worst parts of a Rider Haggard novel, this latest chapter appears unsurprising. But as much as MAGA voters love Christians, they hate foreign wars more.
FOR BUSINESS. This is unlikely to be more than a passing distraction, though Abuja may welcome it if it leads to military aid. Accusations of religious genocide are otherwise false. Violence in the north and centre of the country is real, but Christianity overall is thriving, due in large part to Nigeria’s demographics, where more births were recorded last year than in the US and EU combined (thus also contributing to the land shortages that exacerbate the violence).
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IRAN. Mullah assured destruction
Tehran risks getting bombed, or getting the bomb.
Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would rebuild its nuclear facilities “with greater strength”. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would not negotiate on missiles or halt enrichment. The US Treasury’s top sanctions official visited the region.
INTELLIGENCE. Iran’s rhetorical hardening, bolstered by Russia’s offer to build eight