There is, as of this writing, an armed attack going on in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. According to reports, a “group” of armed gunman have taken as many as 20 hostages in the Holey Artisan Bakery in the Gulshan diplomatic area of the city. The Hindu is live updating the episode as more details become available. Daesh (the Islamic State) is claiming responsibility for the attack, but there is no way to verify the claim right now.
The US has released data on the effectiveness of drone strikes in protecting US security. According to the statistics, the US claims to have “taken off the battlefield” (I assume that means killed) between 2,372 and 2,581 militants in the countries that the US has targeted (which included, but is not limited to, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and Libya (the statistics do not include the countries where IS combat troops are “officially” engaged such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The US estimates that there have been between 64 and 116 noncombatant civilians inadvertently killed in the strikes (“collateral damage”). Those numbers do not correspond well with the numbers compiled by non-governmental agencies. It is impossible to tell which numbers are closest to the truth.
The Austrian high court has ruled that there were irregularities in the vote counting in the Austrian presidential election which was held last May. In that election, which was finally determined by absentee ballots, the Green Party candidate barely eked out a victory over the right-wing candidate, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party. The Freedom Party is anti-EU and anti-immigrant and its chances for victory have no doubt been boosted by the recent Brexit vote. A new election will be held sometime in the autumn. The right continues to rise in Europe.
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