Threat level ‘high’ for great-power conflict

UNITED STATES: The risk of conflict among great powers “is higher than at any time since the Cold War,” according to the worldwide threat assessment delivered to Congress Tuesday by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. Contrary to statements by President Donald Trump about the defeat of ISIS in Iraq, the Coats report indicates ISIS “probably will maintain” its insurgency in Iraq and Syria “as part of a long-term strategy.”

On Syria, the report asserts the Syrian regime used sarin gas in an April 4, 2017, attack on Khan Shaykhun. That attack killed 80 people and injured hundreds, prompting Trump to order U.S. airstrikes on a Syrian base April 6. But some experts continue to dispute the U.S. claim that the attack was carried out by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

TURKEY: With U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on his way to Turkey on Thursday, why aren’t we considering sanctions over Ankara’s jailing of Americans?

RUSSIA: A remarkable journey by Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard reveals President Vladimir Putin’s Russia is anything but a monolith.

Russia’s anti-extremism laws are being used to crack down on peaceful religious minorities such as Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Hare Krishnas, according to a U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom report.

REFUGEES: Using algorithms to relocate refugees in optimal U.S. employment markets could be a cost-effective way to improve refugee integration in the United States, Stanford University scientists found. Despite Trump’s January 2017 pledge to Christian refugees—“We are going to help them”—the number granted asylum in 2017 actually dropped—by 63 percent, from a little more than 27,000 the last year President Barack Obama was in office to about 15,500 under Trump in 2017. More discussion on Wednesday’s The World and Everything in It.

IRAN: Trump’s get-tough policies toward Tehran may be having an effect, with Iran reducing its harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, European leaders pressuring Iran to limit ballistic missile development, and continued unrest exposing the regime’s vulnerability.

NIGERIA has convicted the first person brought to trial for the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping.

ITALY: The discovery of prehistoric wine in Sicilian caves, dating back to 6000 B.C., is forcing archaeologists to reconsider everything they thought about Copper Age life in the region.

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