World roundup: February 9 2022

Stories from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Mexico, and more

It is with great sadness that I must report that Zack Kramer, a former contributor to this newsletter and its WordPress-based predecessor, passed away suddenly in Prague this past weekend at the age of 32. He will be deeply missed. If I get any information with respect to donations to his family or a charitable cause in his name I will share that with you here.

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

There’s a bit more information about Wednesday morning’s Israeli missile attack in the vicinity of Damascus. At least one Syrian soldier was killed and five others were wounded in the barrage, which targeted Syrian air defenses and apparently came in response to a Syrian anti-aircraft missile that crossed into Israeli airspace before exploding. The Israeli military is openly acknowledging the attack, something it rarely does when it strikes targets in Syria. The Israelis sometimes make an exception to their usual silence when they can point to an obvious precipitating act, in this case the anti-aircraft missile. The thing is, there’s no apparent reason why the Syrian military would be lobbing anti-aircraft weaponry around unless it were responding to an airstrike of some kind. So let’s say I have some questions about the official sequence of events in this case and move on.