Afghanistan: A bad year in America's longest war
9/7/2018, 6:38:53 AMFighting between the Taliban and government forces has helped drive the number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan this year to its highest point on record. ✔ This despite the $45 billion the US spends per year here, focused mainly on training Afghan security forces ✔ One frontline government brigade is more than twice as bad, 30% below strength, according to the sources ✔ It's obvious that when you defend your homeland, you get killed
Tri-party talks in Tehran may decide outcome of Syria war
9/7/2018, 5:09:30 AMThe leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey are to hold talks in Tehran this week to discuss how to move forward in Syria. Damascus is gearing up for a major military operation while the US threatens it with intervention. ✔ Russia and Iran will likely try to persuade Turkey in Tehran that an offensive in Idlib is necessary while trying to offer some solutions to Ankara’s concerns, said Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University
U.S. defense secretary on unannounced visit to Afghanistan
9/7/2018, 4:35:13 AMU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Kabul on Friday to meet the new commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan and discuss progress on talks with the Taliban, despite deteriorating security and turmoil within the Afghan government. ✔ Mattis is accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Joseph Dunford ✔ Right now, we have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage, Mattis said ✔ It now has some framework, there’s some open lines of communication, Mattis added ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
Political rows, worsening security greet Mattis in Afghanistan
9/7/2018, 4:46:36 AMU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Kabul on Friday to meet the new commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan and discuss progress on talks with the Taliban, despite deteriorating security and turmoil within the Afghan government. ✔ Two insurgent commanders have told Reuters that the Taliban rejected a second ceasefire offered this month by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ✔ Ultimately, any chances of peace talks with the Taliban could come to a halt because of internal political issues within the Afghan government ✔ Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis in surprise visit to Afghanistan
9/7/2018, 6:57:30 AMExpected to meet with Afghan, U.S., NATO military commanders, Afghan leaders as U.S. appears to push for negotiated end to long war ✔ Mattis' arrival came just days after a suicide bomber killed 21 people and amid a fresh round of insider attacks that claimed the life of one American service member and eight local police earlier this week ✔ The Trump administration seems to be ramping up efforts for a negotiated end to the Afghan war
Mattis in Afghanistan as US pushes for Taliban deal
9/7/2018, 4:38:20 AMundefined ✔ US troops are now training and advising up to 350,000 Afghan security forces, a task they largely ignored in the early stages of the war ✔ These guys want to go home too, said a former senior Pentagon official ✔ There’s a level of war weariness that is going to lead to some sort of brokered agreement
Is Idlib set to end Syrian war?
9/7/2018, 4:15:42 AMSyria and its ally Russia are gearing up for an all-out assault on the rebel-held province of Idlib. ✔ Media player Media playback is unsupported on your device Is Idlib set to end Syrian war ✔ Rebels in the province are preparing to defend their last bastion, as the UN warns this could be a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale not yet seen in Syria's seven-year-old war
Syria summit in Iran may decide Idlib military offensive
9/7/2018, 5:49:05 AMTEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will meet in Tehran to discuss the war in Syria, with all eyes on a possible military offensive to retake the last re ✔ Northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas are home to about 3 million people nearly half of them civilians displaced from other parts of Syria ✔ That also includes an estimated 10,000 hard-core fighters, including al-Qaida-linked militants ✔ All also face U.S. sanctions under the administration of President Donald Trump
US Defense secretary makes surprise visit to war-weary Kabul
9/7/2018, 6:30:05 AMKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul on a surprise visit to the war-weary country. The U.S. command ✔ KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has arrived in the Afghan capital Kabul on a surprise visit to the war-weary country ✔ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this week the appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad, as Washington's new point man for Afghan reconciliation
Iran, Russia and Turkey leaders to meet for crunch talks on Syria
9/7/2018, 7:51:45 AMKey powers to hold summit before feared offensive to recapture Idlib province ✔ Idlib A bloody offensive that creates a massive wave of death and displacement, however, runs counter to their narrative that the situation in Syria is normalising, and could hurt Russia’s longer-term efforts to encourage the return of refugees and get western countries to invest in Syria’s postwar reconstruction
Back to school, but not for all of Syria's children
9/7/2018, 6:41:45 AMDOUMA, Syria (AP) — Standing in line in the courtyard of their school in the capital Damascus, scores of Syrian girls in pink and blue uniforms saluted the flag and sang the count ✔ DOUMA, Syria (AP) Standing in line in the courtyard of their school in the capital Damascus, scores of Syrian girls in pink and blue uniforms saluted the flag and sang the country's national anthem ✔ In Lebanon and Jordan, UNICEF funding shortfalls were at 48 and 49 percent, respectively
From darkness to the light: Syrian families find peace in rural England
9/7/2018, 6:15:11 AMSuccess of resettlements in Herefordshire has challenged ideas of where to place refugees ✔ The eccentrically named Bunch of Carrots pub in the heart of Herefordshire oozes English rural charm, with its hanging flower baskets, picnic benches and carvery fare ✔ But at the same time we were going into the unknown ✔ Hieam is serving up thick Arabic coffee and baklava
Putin, Rouhani, Erdogan to discuss Syria's future in Tehran
9/7/2018, 6:38:14 AMIran, Turkey and Russia to meet in new diplomatic efforts as Syria plans offensive in rebel-held Idlib. ✔ During a visit to Tehran, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the world was not doing enough to help people displaced by war ✔ It is clear that the risks of a military confrontation causing massive loss of life is very high ✔ Inside Story: As Syria's Final Battles Looms, What Comes Next
China’s Xi plans to meet Putin on visit to Russian Far East port city
9/7/2018, 6:24:21 AMBEIJING--Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week in a ✔ It will be the first time a Chinese head of state has attended the Russian-hosted Eastern Economic Forum, a gathering Moscow hopes will encourage investment in its thinly populated far-east ✔ The visit also comes as China is reaching out to trade partners amid a tariff war with the United States ✔ The two have met 25 times--five times last year alone, according to Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov
Moon pushes for ‘irrevocable’ progress on nuke diplomacy
9/7/2018, 4:21:28 AMSEOUL--South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Friday that he's pushing for ✔ Kim has repeatedly said he wants a step-by-step disarmament process, where each of his actions is reciprocated with corresponding outside concessions ✔ South Korean officials say the summit will focus on how to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
The battle for Syria’s last rebel redoubt looms
9/7/2018, 6:09:23 AMThe fall of Idlib would doom the rebellion against regime rule ✔ Russia has dispatched more warships, bombers and fighter jets to Syria ✔ Russia, meanwhile, is trying to persuade the West to stump up cash to rebuild the country it has helped destroy ✔ It may be their last chance to work out a deal that spares Idlib from wholesale slaughter
Party cups as gas masks: Idlib civilians brace for battle
9/7/2018, 7:35:43 AMPictures show colourful party cups filled with cotton and charcoal being fitted to a child's face with a plastic bag tightened around his head in a village in Syria's Idlib province. ✔ Terrified Syrians are making improvised gas masks out of paper cups amid fears dictator Bashar al-Assad will launch chemical attacks during a push to seize the country's remaining rebel stronghold ✔ It also said Syrian forces have used chemical weapons, including chlorine, more than two dozen times during the war
Russia warns US of pending attack in Syrian area with US troops
9/7/2018, 4:51:34 AMRussia has warned the US military twice in the last week that its forces, along with Syrian regime units, are prepared to attack in an area where dozens of US troops are located, according to several US defense officials. ✔ US officials would not say how Moscow conveyed its warning to Washington ✔ But with an imminent Russian-backed assault by Syrian regime forces in the Idlib area in the north, there is concern Moscow could see this as an optimum time to conduct multiple offensive operations
AP FACT CHECK: Trump's disloyal official is not a traitor
9/7/2018, 6:41:57 AMWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is questioning whether one of his senior officials committed treason by going public about an effort within the administration to thwart h ✔ No one has been convicted of treason since the aftermath of World War II, few have been through history and no one has been executed for that crime, says Carlton F.W ✔ President Donald Trump lashed out against the anonymous senior official who wrote it, claiming to be part of a resistance working from within to thwart the commander-in-chief's most dangerous impulses
Growing China-Russia defense ties leave West in a bind
9/7/2018, 5:12:16 AMUS and allies cannot easily split the new 'quasi-alliance' without compromising their principles ✔ What are the U.S., Japan and their liberal allies to do to resist this combined challenge to the rules-based international order ✔ Some strategists will inevitably argue that the West must drive a wedge between China and Russia by offering inducements to one or the other ✔ This is to say nothing of its treatment of domestic opponents ✔ Try 3 months for $9 Offer ends September 30th
Why statism today?
9/7/2018, 6:11:54 AMundefined ✔ For instance, the government raised the minimum wage by a whopping 16.7 percent this year as part of efforts to keep Moon's campaign promise ✔ It also implemented a shorter 52-hour workweek July 1 ✔ Heo Mane (mane398@naver.com) is a professor emeritus and adviser of the Korea-EU Forum
In An Underground Lab In California, Artists And Scientists Concoct A New Blue
9/7/2018, 4:52:14 AMIn an underground lab in California, scientists created a new hue called Quantum Blue. It's the latest result of humanity's obsession with harnessing pur... ✔ Isabella Carapella/HuffPost BERKELEY, Calif ✔ Shelves overflowed with vials, beakers and bottles of chemicals turned sepia with age ✔ They’ve also gotten really good at crossword puzzles ✔ Alivisatos is the fairy godfather looming over Quantum Blue’s creation myth
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