World roundup: February 2 2022

Stories from Afghanistan, Russia, Peru, and more

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

• OPEC+ member states held their monthly planning meeting on Wednesday and decided to stay the course for at least another month. The bloc will collectively increase global oil production by another 400,000 barrels per day in March, as it’s been doing for several months now. Spiking oil prices had led to speculation that the Gang would decided to speed up its return to normal production levels after the deep COVID-related cuts it made back in 2020, but clearly members are still wary of potentially flooding the market—especially if the pandemic causes a new drop in demand.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The Turkish military bombarded multiple targets associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria on Tuesday. We noted the Iraqi attacks in yesterday’s roundup but in Syria the Turks killed at least four people in an attack on a power station in Hasakah province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. You may remember Hasakah province from such recent conflicts as last month’s attempted Islamic State prison break, which the Kurds only finally seem to have fully suppressed this past weekend. Now, I’m not suggesting that the Turks would be bombarding Kurdish positions in Hasakah in support of an IS operation in that same province. But I’m also not not suggesting it. The timing is, at least, peculiar.

On Wednesday, somebody shelled the Turkish-held town of al-Bab in northern Syria, killing at least eight people (again according to the SOHR). I don’t think you have to ponder this too much to conclude that it was Kurdish retaliation for those earlier Turkish attacks.