A year ago the Islamic State took its first major city. And what a year it has been

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NEED TO KNOW:

It's been a year since the Islamic State burst onto the international scene by taking Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. And what a year it has been.

In the days and weeks and months after the world's new No. 1 terrorist group surprised everyone by seizing Mosul, it went ahead and seized a bunch of other cities and towns. Most recently it took Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria. And it may have just taken Sirte in Libya. Despite some defeats — it lost Tikrit to Iraqi forces in March — the Islamic State has expanded its control to large parts of Iraq and Syria, including parts of the border between them.

And with every new territorial triumph has come new reports of horror. Millions of people have fled Iraqi and Syrian cities under the control of the Islamic State. The terrorist group has destroyed precious ancient buildings and artifacts everywhere it has gone. Its fighters have carried out gruesome public mass executions, recording them on video and posting those videos online. A few months after taking Mosul, the Islamic State beheaded James Foley, an American freelance journalist who worked for GlobalPost. Many more beheadings have followed.

The sudden expansion of the Islamic State and its shocking scare tactics prompted an intervention by the United States. In August of last year, after Foley's death, the United States began launching airstrikes in Iraq and Syria to help various local groups and armies fight back. It has also since authorized about 3,000 military advisers to help train the Iraqi army.

None of it has been enough. The Islamic State remains in control of most of what it has conquered in the last year. Its finances are strong. Its ranks continue to grow. Sympathizers have popped up all over the world.

So, a year after the Islamic State took Mosul, the United States might finally be relenting on the whole “no boots on the ground” thing. US President Barack Obama is expected to announce that the United States will establish a new military base in Iraq's Anbar province. Another 400 “military trainers” will also head to Anbar. Their goal: take back Ramadi. But what about Mosul? Well, that's going to be a much harder fight.

WANT TO KNOW:

Al Jazeera has grown into one of the world's most powerful media organizations. And like all media organizations, it is loved by many, despised by many.

But despite its dominance as a cable news station in much of the world, Al Jazeera — also like all media organizations — struggles with accusations that it is manipulated by higher powers, that its coverage is biased, that it is not, like some other channels claim to be, fair and balanced.

Al Jazeera is state-funded; that's the problem. (So is the BBC, it is worth noting.) The government of Qatar pays almost all of Al Jazeera's bills and many worry that Al Jazeera is tailoring its coverage to the whims of Qatar's leaders.

Its recent coverage of Yemen is the latest example. Qatar is part of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia that is bombing Yemen in an effort to push back the rebels who have taken the capital. The airstrikes have been notable for their indiscrimination. Human rights groups have criticized the coalition for not doing more to avoid civilian casualties. An airstrike, for instance, once hit a refugee camp.

Al Jazeera's coverage of the strikes, however, has been mostly favorable. And even when the media company does broadcast something critical of the bombings, it runs the report in English, not in Arabic. Here is an example. GlobalPost spoke with the online manager for Al Jazeera English in Doha, and we asked him about these discrepancies and more. You can read his responses here.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

China and a handful of other countries have been bickering and at times outright fighting over a tiny chain of islands in the South China Sea. They are called the Spratly Islands and parts of them are claimed by about five different governments in the region.

The islands, if you can call them that, are little spits of seemingly nothing. Some of them are not even visible at high tide. China's largest claim is half the size of New York's Central Park. These aren't places people live. But there are tons of fossil fuels and other valuable resources hidden in the area's depths. So, because this is the world in which we live, governments are fighting over them.

The latest strategy is an odd one: to apparently enhance its ownership, Vietnam is sending its citizens on fancy cruise ships to spend some time at the Spratly Islands. China has also tried this. It's weird because there is nothing there. Maybe some day there could be a resort, but right now — as GlobalPost Senior Correspondent Patrick Winn writes — China and Vietnam are busy adding less-welcoming facilities like military airstrips, bunkers and what appear to be artillery emplacements. St. Barts they are not.

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